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Girl, 11, becomes youngest person to be honoured with MBE

Carmela Chillery-Watson was recognised for her services to charitable fundraising. An 11-year-old girl who is the youngest person ever to be made an MBE said she was left “speechless” when…

Amy Winehouse’s father suing friend to ‘hurt’ her, High Court told

Tributes paid to ‘born soldier’ British paratrooper killed in Ukraine

Iceland boss and top Downing Street aide among Starmer’s new Labour peers

Iceland becomes fifth country to boycott Eurovision 2026

William would ‘love the darts’, says champion ‘cool hand’ Luke Humphries

Starmer and European allies discuss Ukraine peace plan with Trump

Irish minister criticises EU for failing to act on child safety online

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Sonia Sodha

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…

Simon Heffer

New protest laws would be extreme

Having been bored into a stupor by a supposedly Conservative government’s serial failure to be conservative, something Rishi Sunak said recently suddenly had a voice inside me crying, “Whoa!”. His…

Peter Lawlor

History’s false promises

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

Nathaniel Tapley

Passing as upper class

Lots of things from the 1990s are difficult to explain to your teenage children now:…

Khaled Bazzi

Where hope takes root

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

Christopher Hart

Hedge fund

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

Peter Lawlor

Creative destruction

According to a quip once made by Peter Ustinov, “Just before the world blows itself…

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COMMENT

Sonia Sodha

Breaking the class ceiling

Aspiration and social mobility were at the heart of Tony…

Simon Heffer

Why Labour has to be conservative

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

Peter Phelps

Time for a class act

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

Peter Lawlor

Rent in two

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

Peter Phelps

Hopeful histories

“No news is good news”, the saying goes, but the reverse is also true. Good…

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Perspectives

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All that jazz

Lucy Moore

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

Stealth wealth

Róisín Lanigan

A crack in the Millennial dream of equality

I post therefore I am

Róisín Lanigan

Uncovering the online persona

The young ones

Lily Webb

The new generation of men are emotionally literate and comfortable in their skin

Perspectives

Snob value

Philip Hensher

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

Xi the Peacemaker

Michael Burleigh

China’s diplomatic manoeuvring wrong-foots the West

Trans positive

Róisín Lanigan

We’re living in Terf times

Calorie counter

Róisín Lanigan

How arbitrary numbers altered my relationship with food

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PEOPLE

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The Interview The Interview - Front Page

BY

Gavin Esler

Hein de Haas

Sociologist and myth-buster Hein de Haas explains how politicians’ pandering to prejudice has backfired

In Conversation In Conversation - Front Page TCE

BY

Joanna Grochowicz

Michael Palin

Talks about his new volume of diaries, his support for the Prison Reform Trust, the loss of his wife Helen, and his determination to keep travelling in his 80s

Reputations Reputations - Front Page

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Lucy Ward

Catherine the Great

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

FROM MY PERSPECTIVE - Q&As

Bobby Seagull

Maths teacher, author and TV broadcaster

Mike Figgis

Film director, composer, musician

Joanna Lumley

Actress, campaigner and national treasure

Robert Peston

ITV News political editor and presenter of Peston

Vince Cable

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

Daniel Howell

Author, entertainer and comedian

John Lloyd

Producer of Blackadder and Spitting Image

Sally Phillips

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

Andrew Roberts

Historian and journalist

Benny Higgins

Banker

Chris Smith

Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge, and former Culture Secretary

Chris van Tulleken

Doctor, author and science presenter

Tom Curry

England Rugby International and Sale Sharks Flanker

Ed Balls

Economist, broadcaster and former cabinet minister

Jeremy Paxman

Journalist, broadcaster and quizmaster

Ronni Ancona

Comedian, actress and filmmaker

Wynne Evans

Opera singer and radio presenter

Zandra Rhodes

Fashion designer

Lucy Hughes-Hallett

Historian, biographer, novelist

Dan Snow

Historian and TV presenter

FROM MY PERSPECTIVE – Q&As

Benny Higgins

Banker

Lucy Hughes-Hallett

Historian, biographer, novelist

Bobby Seagull

Maths teacher, author and TV broadcaster

Jeremy Paxman

Journalist, broadcaster and quizmaster

Ed Vaizey

Member of the House of Lords

Mike Figgis

Film director, composer, musician

Vince Cable

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

Wasfi Kani, CBE

Founder of Pimlico Opera and Grange Park Opera

Ed Balls

Economist, broadcaster and former cabinet minister

Rosie Holt

Comedian and actress

Lord David Owen

Former foreign secretary and co-founder of the SDP

Jeremy Bowen

International Editor of BBC News

Andrew Roberts

Historian and journalist

Doon Mackichan

actress, comedian, author

Daniel Howell

Author, entertainer and comedian

Joanna Lumley

Actress, campaigner and national treasure

Michael Holding

Former West Indies Test cricketer and Sky Sports commentator

Sally Phillips

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

Lynn Barber

author and journalist

Craig Brown

Author and satirist

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CULTURE

MORE AUTHOR INTERVIEWS

Author Interview - Front Page The author Interview

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Helen Brown

This is a book that faces the awful possibility of a wind’s death amid climate collapse

Sarah Hall

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

Mary Beard

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

Tessa Hadley

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

Naomi Alderman

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

FEATURES

Acts of sedition

Pauline F Kiernan

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

Gothic delights

Elizabeth Sharkey

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

FILM

Poverty porn

Anne Billson

STYLE

Anything goes

Christobel Kent

POETRY

Hermeneutics by Rebecca Hurst

There's a Walrus on My Windscreen by Ian Humphreys

I Am Waiting For You by Risalet Merdan

Tight Little Island by Rishi Dastidar

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

ART

The herstory of art

Max Lunn

MUSIC

Prisoner with a key

Laura Barton

CULTURE

Author Interview - Front Page TCE The author Interview

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Helen Brown

“Sex is the place where the animal body erupts into the life of the thinking mind”

Tessa Hadley

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

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