Features
Train your brain: How to keep your mind young
‘Beep!’ This is one of the most maddening computer games I’ve ever played. I’m tracking a flock of birds, and…
Prue Leith: When did the Samaritans lose their way?
In the past few weeks, on three separate occasions, I have met three different women who for years (one for…
‘Come on, cancel me’: An interview with Bret Easton Ellis
‘I grew up in LA where we all thought fame was a joke,’ says Bret Easton Ellis. ‘My class was…
Grouse moors have destroyed Britain’s natural heritage – so we must rewild them
Britain’s hunting estates were once beautiful. Walking through the New Forest, we can all appreciate how the purchase of land…
Home truths: Are nurseries damaging our children?
As any parent of young children will tell you, toddler groups exist as much for the adults as for the…
25 years off the booze has taught me three simple things
Have you noticed how nearly everyone in the media has won an award? Is there even such a thing as…
Windermere, a voyage into Swallows and Amazons
‘A love of boats and sailing is the surest of all passports to a happy life,’ wrote Arthur Ransome. Standing…
Will Nigel Farage’s Brexit party sink the Tories?
Something’s been missing from Westminster these past few days. Normally, in an election week, there is a buzz about the…
Why are boringly straight women claiming to be lesbians?
Lesbian tourism has long been a thing — women who once kissed a girl trying to appear more interesting while…
Andrew Adonis, a master of social media – and a model of social mobility
The news over Easter that Lord Adonis, the counterweight to nominative determinism, was standing as a Labour Remain MEP was…
We all have servants now
Montego Bay, Jamaica When the Kennedy clan were children, JFK and his siblings would tear off their clothes before leaping…
As a QC, I believe the time has come to legalise drugs
I have been a defence lawyer for more than 25 years. I have defended clients charged with almost every crime…
Romanticising Northern Ireland’s history is a deadly mistake
For those of us who grew up in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, there is a pungent but negative sense…
Moby: My vegan brunch with Leo DiCaprio and Jane Goodall
Los Angeles has its shortcomings. Some are shared with almost all big cities (traffic, more traffic), while others are unique…
Scilly season: Shipwrecks, seclusion and Harold Wilson’s house
‘You can get away from everything,’ said Harold Wilson of the Isles of Scilly, ‘not only in distance but also…
The Scruton tapes: an anatomy of a modern hit job
Sometimes a scandal is not just a scandal, but a biopsy of a society. So it is with the assault…
Rory Stewart: Why I’d make a good prime minister
Almost nobody in Westminster admits to wanting to be prime minister. Rory Stewart is a cheerful exception. Most leadership hopefuls…
Is anything creepier than a ‘male feminist’?
Over a drink recently I sat next to a man who announced, barely before he’d taken his first sip, that…
Our churches aren’t perfect, but if we lose them we will all be worse off
After hearing about the massacre in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, I went to church, happily sang the word God…
How Ireland became a back door to Britain
I was working in Johannesburg when I first got wind of the fact that Ireland has become an illegal back…
Stop going through the motions – committees are a waste of time
God save us from committees. They’re an increasingly outdated way of getting things done. But there’s a certain sort of…
The weird and wacky world of Goop
The other day, as I walked with my partner through Notting Hill, we came across a shop which deserves to…
Thank God for western values
Declarations of hope that Notre Dame can be resurrected have been much in evidence this Holy Week. Such is the…
It’s not anti-Irish to criticise Leo Varadkar
The relationship between the UK and the Republic of Ireland has ‘reached a hunger-strike low’, says a new study by…
How Philip Larkin f****d me up
I first came across Philip Larkin’s poem ‘This Be the Verse’ when I was 18 in the late 1970s. You…
