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Aviva has recorded cases where flames have spread to Christmas trees, decorations and wrapping paper, with candle-related claims spiking in December. Fire damage related to candles typically costs more than…

Starmer to back Budget amid row over Reeves’ deficit claims

First suspected bluetongue outbreak in Northern Ireland under investigation

Prince of Wales ‘moved by courage’ of Gazan children brought to UK for treatment

Award-winning playwright Sir Tom Stoppard dies aged 88

Police arrest 25 over ‘support for Palestine Action’ at Birmingham protest

Asylum hotel protests ‘racist’, says Swinney

Cameron Barracks asylum seeker plans made up on back of an envelope: Swinney

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COMMENT

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Sonia Sodha

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…

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…

Nathaniel Tapley

Cradle of libertines

England likes to think of itself as “the cradle of liberty”. True, if you think…

Lucy Moore

All that jazz

When we were finally released from lockdown in summer 2021, a hedonistic return to real…

Khaled Bazzi

Where hope takes root

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

Keiran Goddard

Falling better

The only thing slower than writing books, it seems, is publishing them. The mechanisms of…

Wade Graham

The new nomadism

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

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For some of the world’s best independent writing on the stories and ideas shaping our world

COMMENT

Sonia Sodha

The road to recovery

First in 1945, then 1997 and now 2024. The three…

Simon Heffer

New protest laws would be extreme

Having been bored into a stupor by a supposedly Conservative…

Peter Lawlor

Question time

A little while ago, I was invited to a small private dinner at a well-known…

Peter Phelps

Free for all

When you’re stuck in the swamp of a midlife crisis, there’s generally only two ways…

Mic Wright

Hold the blank page

https://www.perspectivemedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/mic.mp3 Listen to this article As I sat down to write this column, a tundra…

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Perspectives

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Free as a bird

Keggie Carew

A meditation on our complex relationship with wildness

Dollar fever

Frances Coppola

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

AI makes you stupid

Susie Alegre

It's shrinking your brain – but don't panic, because swearing can reboot your cognitive creativity

Deadly game

Nicholas Blincoe

Palestinians have been kicked around for decades – could football have something to teach politicians on every side?

Perspectives

Free as a bird

Keggie Carew

A meditation on our complex relationship with wildness

The wheel turns

Nick Hunt

Why doomsday scenarios appeal to our linear concept of time

Know thy past

Gillian Mosely

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

La La land

Joan Harrison

The road to Hollywood is paved with anti-ageing procedures

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PEOPLE

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The Interview The Interview - Front Page

BY

Lipika Pelham

Zahra Joya

Airlifted to London after the Taliban invasion in 2021, journalist Zahra Joya runs a platform for silenced Afghan women

In Conversation In Conversation - Front Page TCE

BY

Rowan Pelling

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

Lucy Ward

Catherine the Great

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

FROM MY PERSPECTIVE - Q&As

Rosie Holt

Comedian and actress

Robert Peston

ITV News political editor and presenter of Peston

Zandra Rhodes

Fashion designer

Katie Brand

Award-winning writer and comedian

Ed Vaizey

Member of the House of Lords

Wasfi Kani, CBE

Founder of Pimlico Opera and Grange Park Opera

Phil Hammond

Doctor, comedian, journalist

John Lloyd

Producer of Blackadder and Spitting Image

Jeremy Paxman

Journalist, broadcaster and quizmaster

Tom Curry

England Rugby International and Sale Sharks Flanker

Craig Brown

Author and satirist

DBC Pierre

Booker Prize-winning author

Bobby Seagull

Maths teacher, author and TV broadcaster

Dan Snow

Historian and TV presenter

Benny Higgins

Banker

Chris Smith

Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge, and former Culture Secretary

Wynne Evans

Opera singer and radio presenter

Doon Mackichan

actress, comedian, author

Vince Cable

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

Rosie Boycott

The first woman to edit a UK broadsheet newspaper

FROM MY PERSPECTIVE – Q&As

Sally Phillips

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

Rosie Boycott

The first woman to edit a UK broadsheet newspaper

Benny Higgins

Banker

John Lloyd

Producer of Blackadder and Spitting Image

Jeremy Bowen

International Editor of BBC News

Robert Peston

ITV News political editor and presenter of Peston

Wasfi Kani, CBE

Founder of Pimlico Opera and Grange Park Opera

Zandra Rhodes

Fashion designer

Joanna Lumley

Actress, campaigner and national treasure

Ed Balls

Economist, broadcaster and former cabinet minister

Daniel Howell

Author, entertainer and comedian

Ed Vaizey

Member of the House of Lords

Andrew Roberts

Historian and journalist

Tom Curry

England Rugby International and Sale Sharks Flanker

Dan Snow

Historian and TV presenter

Michael Holding

Former West Indies Test cricketer and Sky Sports commentator

Lucy Hughes-Hallett

Historian, biographer, novelist

Ronni Ancona

Comedian, actress and filmmaker

Lynn Barber

author and journalist

Mike Figgis

Film director, composer, musician

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CULTURE

MORE AUTHOR INTERVIEWS

Author Interview - Front Page TCE The author Interview

by

Helen Brown

“It is a religion that asks women to have many children and really sacrifice their bodies”

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

Cathy Newman

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

Francesca Beauman

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

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

Zealots not harlots

Elizabeth Sharkey

How Quaker dissenters became England’s first feminists

The politics of colour

Tina Gharavi

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

FILM

The life fantastic

Anne Billson

STYLE

Dressing for utopia

Christobel Kent

POETRY

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

There's a Walrus on My Windscreen by Ian Humphreys

Tight Little Island by Rishi Dastidar

Hermeneutics by Rebecca Hurst

Blood Moon by Gillian Clarke

ART

Digital art merits attention

Max Lunn

MUSIC

Rock and Rigoletto

Laura Barton

CULTURE

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

Tessa Hadley

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

Bee Wilson

The food writer, journalist, author and charity campaigner for TastEd discusses festive family rituals, celebrating Christmas as a newly single parent and her first recipe book

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