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LATEST HEADLINES

Glasgow Central to remain closed as rail disruption expected to continue

All services to and from the station have been suspended following the fire. Glasgow Central station will remain closed throughout Tuesday and is expected to undergo safety inspections following the…

Assisted dying Bill reaches final stage at Holyrood

UK faces inflation pressure as Iran conflict continues

Irish Premier to meet Spanish leader Sanchez in Madrid

Love Island star says cancer-linked pregnancy drug has impacted his health

Wet February dampens retail sales amid Middle East conflict threat to confidence

Wet start to year causes surge in drivers hitting potholes hidden by puddles

UK firms make progress on diversity targets but ‘significant improvement’ needed

COMMENT

The pitfalls of assisted dying

One of the first concepts new students of philosophy are introduced to is Isaiah Berlin’s famous distinction between “freedom to” and “freedom from”: an illustration of the fact that giving…

An age without rival

It wasn’t long before Hallowe’en that I noted many of the significant women in my life – including my wife and the editrix of this august publication – were devoting…

Where hope takes root

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

War reporter

Cambridge In early September I attended the British Red Cross summer school in international humanitarian…

Michael Janofsky

Fight madness with more madness

Most of my friends and I live in a bubble (Los Angeles) within a bubble…

Unfree speech

Free speech is “under threat”, or so we are continually told. Under threat from whom?…

Rent in two

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

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COMMENT

Breaking the class ceiling

Aspiration and social mobility were at the heart of Tony…

An age without rival

It wasn’t long before Hallowe’en that I noted many of…

Time’s arrow

“Lest we forget” is carved into stone in village squares, town halls and city monuments…

The rewilding Republican

Some years ago, I saw the legendary radical environmentalist Dave Foreman give his famous “howl…

Christopher Hart

Hedge fund

According to the great Dr Oliver Rackham, hedges may be the oldest manmade structures on…

Perspectives

Free as a bird

A meditation on our complex relationship with wildness

Baby Doomers

Róisín Lanigan

Falling birth rates are a sign of existential angst

The risk factor

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

The disappearance of Abdullah Öcalan

Imprisoned for a quarter-century, the Kurdish leader has been all but forgotten

Perspectives

All that jazz

The carefree socialites of the 1920s can teach us how to let our hair down

Know thy past

Current shocking violence in Israel and Gaza has its roots in ages of conflict and injustice

Women have it good

Capitalism works for the sisterhood

The nostalgia myth

The UK’s historical illiteracy has led to delusions that create problems for the future

PEOPLE

PEOPLE

TCE The Interview The Interview - Front Page

BY

Sathnam Sanghera

The British writer who says our multicultural empire led to a multicultural society

In Conversation In Conversation - Front Page TCE

BY

Dominic Cummings

Rowan Pelling talks to Dominic Cummings about a start-up party, Brexit, the covid inquiry, Whitehall and other shit-shows

Reputations Reputations - Front Page

BY

Catherine the Great

The enlightened empress who inoculated herself to protect her subjects and advance science

FROM MY PERSPECTIVE - Q&As

Sally Phillips

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

Wasfi Kani, CBE

Founder of Pimlico Opera and Grange Park Opera

Vince Cable

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

Chris van Tulleken

Doctor, author and science presenter

Benny Higgins

Banker

Doon Mackichan

actress, comedian, author

DBC Pierre

Booker Prize-winning author

Ed Balls

Economist, broadcaster and former cabinet minister

Andrew Roberts

Historian and journalist

Katie Brand

Award-winning writer and comedian

John Lloyd

Producer of Blackadder and Spitting Image

Ronni Ancona

Comedian, actress and filmmaker

Lynn Barber

author and journalist

Lucy Easthope

Disaster planner and recovery expert

Chris Smith

Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge, and former Culture Secretary

Mike Figgis

Film director, composer, musician

Bobby Seagull

Maths teacher, author and TV broadcaster

Robert Peston

ITV News political editor and presenter of Peston

Wynne Evans

Opera singer and radio presenter

Lord David Owen

Former foreign secretary and co-founder of the SDP

FROM MY PERSPECTIVE – Q&As

Jeremy Paxman

Journalist, broadcaster and quizmaster

Lucy Easthope

Disaster planner and recovery expert

Rosie Boycott

The first woman to edit a UK broadsheet newspaper

Ronni Ancona

Comedian, actress and filmmaker

Katie Brand

Award-winning writer and comedian

Sally Phillips

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

Phil Hammond

Doctor, comedian, journalist

Craig Brown

Author and satirist

Wasfi Kani, CBE

Founder of Pimlico Opera and Grange Park Opera

Daniel Howell

Author, entertainer and comedian

Benny Higgins

Banker

Lynn Barber

author and journalist

Michael Holding

Former West Indies Test cricketer and Sky Sports commentator

Andrew Roberts

Historian and journalist

Tom Curry

Black and white photo of Tom Curry in England Rugby kit

England Rugby International and Sale Sharks Flanker

Kate Mosse

Author and founder of the Women’s Prize

Lucy Hughes-Hallett

Historian, biographer, novelist

Mike Figgis

Film director, composer, musician

Ed Balls

Economist, broadcaster and former cabinet minister

DBC Pierre

Booker Prize-winning author

CULTURE

MORE AUTHOR INTERVIEWS

Author Interview - Front Page TCE The author Interview

by

“When you see extremely violent sexual stuff on stage you always need to ask: who’s creating it for who and why?”

Ruth Ivo

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 classicist, Cambridge don and trustee of the British Museum discusses flamingo-brain feasts, gender surgery in antiquity and her new book Emperor of Rome

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

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

There’s always whisky

Miranda Seymour

Jean Rhys, literary genius and trouble alcoholic

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

Acts of sedition

Pauline F Kiernan

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

The life fantastic

Give cardis the slip

Christobel Kent

POETRY

Blood Moon by Gillian Clarke

There's a Walrus on My Windscreen by Ian Humphreys

Hermeneutics by Rebecca Hurst

Tight Little Island by Rishi Dastidar

I Am Waiting For You by Risalet Merdan

Art in an emergency

Raye against the machine

CULTURE

The author Interview

by

“People ask, is it prose or poetry? Put it on whichever shelf you want, I don’t fucking care!”

Max Porter

Award-winning British novelist, author of Grief is the Thing with Feathers discusses his new book Shy

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

Gothic delights

Elizabeth Sharkey

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

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

Prisoner with a key

Book Reviews

LIFE

Buffalo Gal

Unpacking the formative impact of an iconic 1980s pop video

The go-between

Growing up in a tied cottage on a landed estate

Crush addict

What makes infatuation so compelling

Spaniel stories

How a mischievous companion transformed my life

LIFE

Mid-life fever

Dr Patricia Campbell

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

Free spirit

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

For better, for worse

June brings fewer wedding bells, but Scheherazade offers post-nuptial inspiration

The new queer

In the LGBTQ world, heterosexuality is gaining kink appeal

MIND OVER MATTER

Neurological-based
advice

FROM DR ASH RANPURA

How to be optimistic and an autism diagnosis

Shopping addiction and a divisive will

In-law etiquette, and seeking an ADHD diagnosis

Mid-life rage and teenage drugs

Othello syndrome and kitchen wars

MIND OVER MATTER

Neurological-based
advice

FROM DR ASH RANPURA

Festive family tensions & disordered eating

Yo-yo dieting and a petrolhead husband

Gender norms and New Age neighbours

Teenage consent and a flaky friend

Finding new love and domestic stand-offs