Journalism
The right kind of dumbing down
Thanks to meteoric advances in computational power, it is now possible to take abundant data from a wide range of…
A feral, all-powerful press? The Whittingdale story disproves that
For weeks, Westminster has been full of rumours about the private life of a certain cabinet member. It was said…
Why I feel compelled to defend Boris
I got Boris Johnson into trouble once, without meaning to. The two of us had been driven hither and thither…
Virtual reality news is coming - and the implications are ominous
John Humphrys staggering around in a piece of ‘virtual reality’ headgear that looked like binoculars and made him feel sick…
Close encounters on the starship Enterprise
For a show with a self-proclaimed ‘five-year mission’, Star Trek hasn’t done badly. Gene Roddenberry’s ‘Wagon train to the stars’…
David Astor: the saintly, tormented man who remade the Observer
Before embarking on this book, Jeremy Lewis was told by his friend Diana Athill that his subject, the newspaper editor…
Two big hitters leave the crease: Brendon McCullum and Hugh McIlvanney
Two great men have just bowed out from their chosen trades and it is bloody sad. The New Zealand cricket…
Keith Moon’s wedding-night abseil and other marvellous false memories
False memory disasters, from Keith Moon’s wedding-night abseil to Sophia Loren’s peanut addiction
Paris: a beautiful, damned city
The much-lamented journalist and bon viveur Sam White, late of the rue du Bac, The Spectator and the Evening Standard,…
From Adrian Gill to A.A. Gill — with love and thanks
Often, Christmas is a time for moaning after the night before, when the seasonal drinking is remembered (if remembered at…
There’s a right way to lose at the Oxford Union. I did the wrong way
The way not to win a debate at the Oxford Union, I’ve just discovered, is to start your speech with…
Dear Mary: My husband has shaved his head for a newspaper feature
Q. My partner, a leading political commentator on a national newspaper, recently agreed to shave off his hair at the…
Owen Sheers disregards the first commandment of novel-writing: to show, not tell
This is a thriller, a novel of betrayal and separation, and a reverie on death and grieving. The only key…
Elizabeth Day urges women to be more ‘me first’, less ‘no, no, after you’
Paradise City, Elizabeth Day’s third novel, comes with an accompanying essay on The Pool — an online magazine for the…
Edward Thomas: the prolific hack (who wrote a book review every three days for 14 years) turned to poetry just in time
Edward Thomas was gloomy as Eeyore. In 1906 he complained to a friend that his writing ‘was suffering more &…
Without Gallipoli, we’d have no Page 3
Some years ago I paid a visit to the site of the Gallipoli landings because I was mildly obsessed with…
Lesley Blanch: a true original on the wilder shores of exoticism
Lesley Blanch (1904–2007) will be remembered chiefly for her gloriously extravagant The Wilder Shores of Love, the story of four…
Richard Madeley’s diary: Forgetting Tom Conti’s name, and other harrowing experiences
Oh God, it’s happened again. Another evening where I’m surrounded by people I know personally or have interviewed, and I…
Cronenberg attempts a teleportation from cinema to fiction. Cover your eyes…
Following his beginnings as a science-fiction horror director, David Cronenberg has spent the past decades transforming himself into one of…
Want a fun job? You just have to pick the right parents
The old paths to the top for working-class children – sport, music, acting, writing – are now closed by nepotism
Now that everyone’s a journalist, anyone can be sued
When everyone’s a potential journalist, it’s time to tame libel costs
Chasing Pulitzers has ruined American journalists. That’s why they're edited by Brits
I was interested to read a story by Michael Wolff in USA Today saying that Graydon Carter may be about…
Why are journalists so scared of giving people what they want?
Since I landed my new job as executive editor at Breitbart London, my old Fleet Street friends and colleagues have…
Curtains for kitty! How to care for cats — and how to kill them
The New Yorker has always had a peculiar affinity with cats, perhaps because they have a lot in common —…
Alexander Chancellor: Do you think you should read this piece for free?
I was in Nottingham last Sunday to address university students about journalism. The occasion was a one-day ‘media conference’ organised…
