Features
Welcome to Ryanair Britain
Local councils, banks, railway companies and the taxman have all learned the art of ‘pirate pricing’
Letter from Somaliland
Ayan Mahamoud, one of the organisers of Hargeysa’s International Book Fair, has all the girly vulnerability of a factory-tested steel…
The views that inspire writers
Do writers really need inspiring landscapes? Or the opposite?
Notes on…Rome
Leave Florence and Sienna to the aesthetes. Let the in-crowd do Naples and Palermo. For the amateur Italophile, Rome is…
Richard Dawkins attacks Muslim bigots, not just Christian ones. If only his enemies were as brave
It’s August, and you are a journalist stuck in the office without an idea in your head. What to write?…
The strange death of the British middle class
The great stabilising force in our society is disappearing fast
As high speed rail is being dropped in California and France, it's time for Britain to take the hint
The government’s high-speed rail plans will never be implemented
Roll up for the Bo Xilai show
China’s fallen princeling has a new role to play: one he may not enjoy
Meet the Gypsy entrepreneurs
Travelling people are putting their entrepreneurial skills to increasingly impressive use
Who cares if Wagner’s 200? The plague of the anniversary
Centenaries now seem to be the only reason that publishers and concert planners do anything at all
Why G.K. Chesterton shouldn’t be made a saint
G.K. Chesterton was a great journalist, not an angel
In defence of binge drinking
The occasional alcoholic blowout is much to be preferred to steady, everyday drinking
Notes on…Walking in the Auvergne
The homicidal sheepdog that launched itself at me from behind a grassy hillock, had the look of a demented hearth…
The wrong way to fix the NHS
A senior surgeon says Jeremy Hunt’s NHS reforms will do more harm than good
Gibraltar isn't the world's weirdest border
Gibraltar is just one geographical oddity in a world full of them
How new food rules could ruin restaurants
Stricter food rules won’t make you any safer – but they could ruin many small restaurants
Putin’s own Cold War
Russia is ever more hostile to the US. But the US no longer needs to care
Love-making in Water
Seals — well, they rhyme with steel — can stand the cold. And they can even dive and mate at…
Why interns don’t deserve pay
The ‘intern justice’ movement is preposterous – and damaging
Joan Collins’s notebook: Fighting libel and rude houseguests
I recently had to spend a great deal of time attempting to clear my name from a ludicrous assertion in…
Anne Boleyn’s last secret
Why was the queen executed with a sword, rather than an axe?
Notes on….Walking in the Scottish Highlands
The simplest and best way to get straight to the heart of the Highlands from London is by sleeper. Board…
Love-making in Water
Seals — well, they rhyme with steel — can stand the cold. And they can even dive and mate at…
Love-making in Water
Seals — well, they rhyme with steel — can stand the cold. And they can even dive and mate at…
You’re never really on holiday with a smartphone
Why not give your smartphone a holiday?
