Sex
A geriatric Lord of the Flies: Killing Time, by Alan Bennett, reviewed
Chaos reigns at an old people’s home when Covid strikes, but the more rebellious residents won’t take the situation lying down
Ambitious, bold and confusing: BBC4’s Corridors of Power – Should America Police the World? reviewed
Narrated by Meryl Streep, Corridors of Power: Should America Police the World? announced the scale of its ambition straight away.…
Surprise package: Tackle!, by Jilly Cooper, reviewed
Rupert Campbell-Black (‘still Nirvana to most women’) decides to buy a football club – to the amazement of Rutshire, and no doubt Cooper’s devoted readers
A strong whiff of goodbyes: The Pole and Other Stories, by J.M. Coetzee, reviewed
‘The cogs are seizing up, the lights are going out.’ As Elizabeth Costello clears her desk in this collection of stories, we feel that Coetzee may be doing the same
The inequality of sex
As we all shroud ourselves in grief at being unable to watch Russell Brand any more on terrestrial television stations,…
Horribly described sex: The Last Chairlift, by John Irving, reviewed
Some time ago I was a guest at a book festival in France where we were invited to dinner in…
A complex, driven, unhappy man: the truth about John le Carré
Adam Sisman on the private life of John le Carré, revealed in letters and a kiss-and-tell
Peta, Lysistrata and the comedy of a sex strike
The German branch of the ‘green’ organisation Peta (‘People for the ethical treatment of animals’) is demanding that, until men…
Liberté, égalité, nudité: France’s new sexual politics
France’s new sexual politics
Why it has to be Kemi
Have you considered a career in whoring? It can be very rewarding, apparently – especially financially. World’s oldest profession and…
The delights of two-timing
Looking back and trying to choose just one out of those incomparably bewitching women of one’s youth can be tricky.…
Beware the sex party bores
You know you’re getting old when your friends start going to sex parties. In our twenties, there were parties, and…
It’s wholly impossible to look away: Good Luck to You, Leo Grande reviewed
Good Luck to You, Leo Grande stars Emma Thompson as a retired, widowed religious education teacher in her sixties who…
A flawed utopia: The Men, by Sandra Newman, reviewed
The problem for feminism is men. Not, specifically, in the sense that men are the source of women’s problems, although…
A child’s eye view: Fight Night, by Miriam Toews, reviewed
Writing from a child’s point of view is a daredevil act that Miriam Toews raises the stakes on in her…
Tina: the drug devastating the gay community
The ‘chemsex’ drug devastating the gay community
This be the curse: Philip Larkin’s big problem
Philip Larkin’s big problem
Women don't 'consent' to their own deaths
A ruling by the Court of Appeal last week has further enshrined the notion that women can consent to their…
The grim reality of gender reassignment
Lisa Littman, a doctor and researcher, recently surveyed ‘detransitioners’ — people who thought they were transgender then changed their minds.…
Why can't men write about sex?
Not long ago I was a regular Tinder user. Having heard that gingers were romantically incompatible, I decided to mix…
Foucault was shielded from scandal by French reverence for intellectuals
Consider the hare and the hyena. The hare, Clement of Alexandria told readers of his 2nd-century sexual self-help manual Paedagogus,…
New Zealand's transgender debate is turning nasty
New Zealand was the first country in the world to give women the right to vote in parliamentary elections. But now,…
A sex education from Aristophanes
The publication of the new Cambridge Greek Lexicon reminded the comedian and classicist Natalie Haynes of her frustrations at school,…
Sun, sex and acid: Thom Gunn in California
San Francisco is a fantastic place… it’s terribly sunny… I am having a splendid hedonistic time here… I find myself…
Do schools really have a problem with sexual violence?
Schools and the problem of ‘rape culture’
