Features
‘I have become their voice’
When the model and actress Anastasia Lin was crowned Miss World Canada last year, a fairly easy and lucrative career…
Italian Notebook
Lido di Dante, Ravenna When the earthquake struck in the dead of night at 3.36 a.m. — the Devil’s Hour…
Bare ruined choirs
We’re so used to looking at the abbeys smashed up by Henry VIII — particularly Rievaulx and Byland, in north…
Bare ruined choirs
We’re so used to looking at the abbeys smashed up by Henry VIII — particularly Rievaulx and Byland, in north…
Marriage for one
As far as the bride was concerned, the wedding was perfect. Her dress was beautiful, the vows were traditional and…
The Bank of Wonderland
What should we think about negative interest rates? What kind of Alice in Wonderland world are we living in when…
Diamond geezers
Ring a ding-ding — here comes the he-bling. Tony Blair started it. The war, that is. On good taste. This…
Iraq’s endgame
Bashiqa, near Mosul, northern Iraq At night, the temperature around the Islamic State-held city of Mosul drops to around…
Bring back bonkbusters!
Life is starting to look a lot like the 1980s: Russia is flexing its muscles, the Labour party is tearing…
Mussolini at Lake Como
If your destiny is to be shot dead with your mistress, where better than Lake Como, which, in the words…
The vanity line
Jeremy Corbyn may not be right about many things, but when he sat on the floor of a train, hoping…
Mussolini at Lake Como
If your destiny is to be shot dead with your mistress, where better than Lake Como, which, in the words…
Our golden age
‘We have fallen upon evil times, politics is corrupt and the social fabric is fraying.’ Who said that? Donald Trump…
Italy’s migrant purgatory
Ravenna At a car park a short walk from Dante’s tomb, one of the gang of illegal immigrants who tell…
The medal machine
Never forget Atlanta. Every time a British athlete wins a gold medal at the Olympic Games in Rio, remember the…
Highland sting
There is no party in Britain quite as fake as the Scottish National Party. The SNP, now entrenched in its…
Who should rule Syria?
The long civil war in Syria is still far from conclusion. Any real possibility of rebel victory ended with the…
The perfect holiday cottage
‘Farm cottage available, Dorset. Long or short let. £5 per week.’ I was looking for a writing bolthole, so I…
Peggy Guggenheim
She had come a very long way from the shtetl, but Marguerite ‘Peggy’ Guggenheim was still the poor relation of…
Peggy Guggenheim
She had come a very long way from the shtetl, but Marguerite ‘Peggy’ Guggenheim was still the poor relation of…
Don’t grouse about grouse
The vast Bubye Valley Conservancy in southern Zimbabwe is slightly larger than County Durham, as well as much hotter and…
Olympic Notebook
How strange it is to be watching the Olympic Games on television. No wonder people have such rum ideas of…
Heads in the cloud
Ask me what I had for lunch yesterday and I couldn’t tell you. Names disappear as swiftly as smoke.-Birthdays, capital…
Trump holds the aces
Last week, the New York Times ran the page one headline ‘Pence Supports Ryan, Showing GOP Turmoil.’ There was turmoil…
The rainbow election
Cape Town South Africa has just seen her most encouraging election results ever. The general election of April 1994, which…
