Class

Was there ever a time of equality in human society?

18 November 2023 9:00 am

Living in open savannahs, men and women had no choice but to cooperate. But evolution caused men to fight and dominate, resulting in sexism and social hierarchy

Why do people assume I am posh?

13 May 2023 9:00 am

If we cram any more doctors into our spare rooms we can put a sign outside advertising NHS accommodation. We…

It’s taken me days to uncringe: All My Friends Hate Me reviewed

11 June 2022 9:00 am

All My Friends Hate Me is a film about a university reunion weekend and should you have an upcoming university…

The joy of being cancelled

20 November 2021 9:00 am

New York I’ve never met anyone called Othello, certainly not in Venice nor in Cyprus, but perhaps there are men…

A gem that should be released online: Park Theatre’s Abigail’s Party reviewed

20 November 2021 9:00 am

Mike Leigh’s classic, Abigail’s Party, has been revived under the direction of Vivienne Garnett. The script is a guilty secret…

Forget race or class, marriage is the big social divide

24 June 2021 3:28 am

The latest spark to ignite the culture wars is a report from the parliamentary education committee on the underachievement of…

The secret code of the ruling class

27 February 2021 9:00 am

I naively hoped that last year’s statement by the Equalities Minister explaining why unconscious bias training was being phased out…

Is my phobia of upmarket restaurants misplaced?

26 September 2020 9:00 am

Scotching my bright idea of a stiff gin for Dutch courage in the bar across the road, Catriona bounded straight…

revolution

The neoliberal counter-revolution

2 July 2020 1:34 pm

America is not in the middle of a revolution — it is a reactionary putsch. About four years ago, the…

How the French view their weekly clap for carers

2 May 2020 9:00 am

Once a week we break French emergency law and have a friend round for drinks on the terrace. The terrace…

The film that shaped my vision of the world

29 February 2020 9:00 am

Joyce Marriott of Pyrton, Oxford, has written a letter to the Times on the subject of how a person’s imagination…

Fabulous and enthralling: Parasite reviewed

7 February 2020 10:00 pm

Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite won the Bafta for best foreign film and is up for six Oscars and it is an…

A badly missed opportunity: How the Middle Classes Ruined Britain reviewed

27 July 2019 9:00 am

BBC2’s How the Middle Classes Ruined Britain (Tuesday) began rather promisingly. ‘I’m a working-class comedian who voted Leave,’ announced presenter…

‘I just kept getting turned down and turned down’: Catherine Foster

From the NHS to Bayreuth: Norman Lebrecht talks to midwife-turned-opera singer Catherine Foster

20 July 2019 9:00 am

Every summer for the past six years, Bayreuth has risen to its feet to acclaim an English Brünnhilde. Catherine Foster,…

The end is nigh: the rise of middle-class apocalypticism

29 June 2019 9:00 am

There’s a lot of anger about — and it’s not pleasant. But at least it means people are engaged as…

Credit: Photo by Alastair Grant/ WPA Pool /Getty Images

Why New York loves John Bercow

2 February 2019 9:00 am

‘The British political class has offered to the world an astounding spectacle of mendacious, intellectually limited hustlers.’ This is a…

True stories: Gary Kemp in 1971

Gary Kemp on pop, Pre-Raphaelites, politics and playing Pinter

15 December 2018 9:00 am

The first thing Gary Kemp bought when Spandau Ballet started making money was a chair. He’s very proud of that…

Real life

16 September 2017 9:00 am

Stefano and his boys got to work with gusto and within a few days the upstairs of my house started…

The London prep school circuit is a horrible racket

21 May 2016 9:00 am

Prep schools are a soul-sapping waste of money

You can’t force low-income people to go to an art gallery or the theatre if they don’t want to

28 February 2015 9:00 am

I went last week to see the justly praised production of Wagner’s The Mastersingers at English National Opera, and I…

From ‘Amateur Gardener’, c. 1890, showing the much sought after suburban garden at its most perfect

A paean to the British passion for our very own ‘castles’

12 July 2014 9:00 am

‘Phlogiston’ is an interesting, if obsolete, word. Of Greek origin, it referred to the ‘fire-making’ quality thought to be present…