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LATEST HEADLINES

LATEST HEADLINES

Police question 13-year-old boy arrested over school stabbings

Police were called to Kingsbury High School, Brent, north-west London, at 12.40pm on Tuesday. Police will continue to question a 13-year-old boy arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, as counter…

Starmer to face PMQs after pledging to ‘never walk away’

Businesses need reforms amid ‘similar pressure to pandemic’, committee warns

DWP’s new bank account checking powers ‘must have risk of over-reach mitigated’

Ceremonial items used by Queen Elizabeth II to be auctioned for cancer charity

Edinburgh Festival Fringe announces first shows for 2026

UK to deploy more troops to Norway in response to Putin’s Arctic threat

Social media ads for prescription-only weight-loss medicines banned

COMMENT

The road to recovery

First in 1945, then 1997 and now 2024. The three times in history that a Labour government has been elected on a sweeping majority, crushing the Conservative incumbents. What Keir Starmer…

Correcting our Grammar mistake

During the Blair years, when recalcitrant Conservatives longed for a pledge to open new grammar schools, no class warrior threw himself into the battle against selective education with such ferocity…

History’s false promises

In 2015, when interviewing Jonathan Sumption, Matt Stadlen asked a deceptively simple question: “Why does…

Michael Janofsky

Long division

Our good friend Kalyan, a gay Indian-American, was so distraught by rising discrimination against Blacks,…

Where hope takes root

As headlines veer toward the apocalyptic – from collapsing ecosystems to vanishing species – it’s…

Time for a class act

January is San Francisco’s coldest and wettest month, and generally its quietest. That wasn’t the…

Letter from the editor

It often feels there are only three topics worth discussing: sex, death and freedom. And…

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COMMENT

Breaking the class ceiling

Aspiration and social mobility were at the heart of Tony…

Why Labour has to be conservative

Here’s a paradox for you: Britain is a conservative country…

Rent in two

In this class-themed issue I want to touch on an important social distinction in the…

Posh performance

I recently wrote a column for The National that provoked some, let’s say, passionate reactions. Two…

The new nomadism

Thrust into the global warming era, there’s much handwringing about how to build, and increasingly…

Perspectives

The end of days

If the apocalypse comes, we will almost certainly have brought it on ourselves

Lessons from History

Perspective Media

We asked some of our favourite historians and writers what key insights they have gained from studying the past

Stealth wealth

Róisín Lanigan

A crack in the Millennial dream of equality

A calamity of lost youth

High numbers of deaths among young people are being ignored by the media and politicians

Perspectives

Snob value

Looking down your nose at “common” behaviour can create a constructive social dynamic

The risk factor

New fiscal regulations don’t address the thin line between scams and foolish investments

Dollar fever

Frances Coppola

Competing currencies won’t unlock the world from the shackles of US financial hegemony

#MeToo returns

Charlotte Proudman

New high-profile cases expose deep-rooted misogyny

PEOPLE

PEOPLE

TCE The Interview The Interview - Front Page

BY

Shami Chakrabarti

Lawyer and human rights activist Shami Chakrabarti defends the ECHR and discusses how notions of liberty are inverted to justify oppression

In Conversation In Conversation - Front Page TCE

BY

Ian Anderson

The leader of prog rock band Jethro Tull talks about the end of days, faith, fencesitting, Jacob Rees-Mogg and the band’s new album, RökFlöte

Reputations Reputations - Front Page

BY

Terence Blacker

Chuck Berry

The revolutionary musician who single-handedly transformed rock 'n' roll

FROM MY PERSPECTIVE - Q&As

Mike Figgis

Film director, composer, musician

Jeremy Paxman

Journalist, broadcaster and quizmaster

Wynne Evans

Opera singer and radio presenter

Ronni Ancona

Comedian, actress and filmmaker

Andrew Roberts

Historian and journalist

Kate Mosse

Author and founder of the Women’s Prize

Lucy Hughes-Hallett

Historian, biographer, novelist

Vince Cable

Former Leader of the Liberal Democrats and Secretary of State (2010-2015)

Chris van Tulleken

Doctor, author and science presenter

Michael Holding

Former West Indies Test cricketer and Sky Sports commentator

Doon Mackichan

actress, comedian, author

Benny Higgins

Banker

Tom Curry

Black and white photo of Tom Curry in England Rugby kit

England Rugby International and Sale Sharks Flanker

Ed Vaizey

Member of the House of Lords

Rosie Holt

Comedian and actress

John Lloyd

Producer of Blackadder and Spitting Image

Wasfi Kani, CBE

Founder of Pimlico Opera and Grange Park Opera

Sally Phillips

The much-loved UK actress on comedy, faith, disability and Christmas

Phil Hammond

Doctor, comedian, journalist

Zandra Rhodes

Fashion designer

FROM MY PERSPECTIVE – Q&As

Lynn Barber

author and journalist

Jeremy Paxman

Journalist, broadcaster and quizmaster

Kate Mosse

Author and founder of the Women’s Prize

Sally Phillips

The much-loved UK actress on comedy, faith, disability and Christmas

Andrew Roberts

Historian and journalist

Wynne Evans

Opera singer and radio presenter

Vince Cable

Former Leader of the Liberal Democrats and Secretary of State (2010-2015)

Daniel Howell

Author, entertainer and comedian

Ed Vaizey

Member of the House of Lords

Rosie Boycott

The first woman to edit a UK broadsheet newspaper

Tom Curry

Black and white photo of Tom Curry in England Rugby kit

England Rugby International and Sale Sharks Flanker

Ronni Ancona

Comedian, actress and filmmaker

Craig Brown

Author and satirist

Jeremy Bowen

International Editor of BBC News

Benny Higgins

Banker

Rosie Holt

Comedian and actress

Katie Brand

Award-winning writer and comedian

Doon Mackichan

actress, comedian, author

Lucy Easthope

Disaster planner and recovery expert

Dan Snow

Historian and TV presenter

CULTURE

MORE AUTHOR INTERVIEWS

Author Interview - Front Page The author Interview

by

“The vitriol online can really knock your confidence”

Cathy Newman

Channel 4’s first female news anchor discusses trailblazing women, internet trolls, sexual assault and her new book The Ladder

The novelist, gamer and Bailey Women’s Prize winner discusses tech billionaires, apocalypse bunkers, her fans Obama and Gates, and her new book The Future

The former burlesque dancer discusses her fictionalised memoir of Soho life in Performance, the exhilarating freedom of club nights in her youth and “hatching” from an egg on stage

The acclaimed novelist discusses her Goldsmiths Prize-shortlisted novel Helm, writing a "strange biography" of Britain's only named wind, climate collapse and "radical optimism," and why sorority is the key to consolidating power shifts and positive change

FEATURES

The politics of colour

Tina Gharavi’s full response to the controversy surrounding Queen Cleopatra, a Netflix series about the identity of the legendary last pharaoh

Gothic delights

Elizabeth Sharkey

Exploring the history of a genre that first bewitched Elizabeth as a teenage Joy Division fan

The life fantastic

Give cardis the slip

Christobel Kent

POETRY

Tight Little Island by Rishi Dastidar

Things to Consider in the Design of Your First Space Suit by Harry Man

Blood Moon by Gillian Clarke

Hermeneutics by Rebecca Hurst

I Am Waiting For You by Risalet Merdan

The art of perturbation

Rachel Campbell Johnston

Prisoner with a key

CULTURE

Author Interview - Front Page The author Interview

by

“The vitriol online can really knock your confidence”

Cathy Newman

Channel 4’s first female news anchor discusses trailblazing women, internet trolls, sexual assault and her new book The Ladder

The critically acclaimed novelist discusses her 1950s-set novella The Party with Helen Brown

Hanna Pylväinen

Whiting Award and Balcones Fiction Prize-winner discusses her strict Lutheran upbringing and her novel The End of Drum-Time

Francesca Beauman

The Persephone Books publisher discusses forgotten gems written by women and the imprint’s 150th book

FEATURES

Zealots not harlots

Elizabeth Sharkey

How Quaker dissenters became England’s first feminists

Acts of sedition

Pauline F Kiernan

Shakespeare’s Richard II was pure treason, so how did he get away with it? asks the author

Film, Film - Front Page, TCE

Primetime Potus

Style, Style - Front Page, TCE

Anything goes

Christobel Kent

POETRY

Tight Little Island by Rishi Dastidar

Hermeneutics by Rebecca Hurst

Art, Art - Front Page, TCE

The art of perturbation

Rachel Campbell Johnston

Music, Music - Front Page, TCE

Get Back

Book Reviews

LIFE

Heart of Ochre

Colour foraging and the politics of pigment

Crush addict

What makes infatuation so compelling

The go-between

Growing up in a tied cottage on a landed estate

The new queer

In the LGBTQ world, heterosexuality is gaining kink appeal

LIFE

Free spirit

How a gap year full of travel and adventure became a “gap life” boundaried only by possibility and curiosity

Mid-life fever

Dr Patricia Campbell

A return to India prompts reflection on cycles of change in medicine and life

Trussst in me…

Siân Wainwright

How do we stop snakes from scamming the elderly?

Alas, poor Yorick

When your childhood garden is a charnel house, and skeletons your toys

MIND OVER MATTER

Neurological-based
advice

FROM DR ASH RANPURA

Festive family tensions & disordered eating

Teenage consent and a flaky friend

Othello syndrome and kitchen wars

Gender norms and New Age neighbours

Yo-yo dieting and a petrolhead husband

MIND OVER MATTER

Neurological-based
advice

FROM DR ASH RANPURA

Middle-aged tears and talking to toddlers

Dealing with a child who lies and a dinner party refusenik

Shopping addiction and a divisive will

In-law etiquette, and seeking an ADHD diagnosis

Mid-life rage and teenage drugs