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Several athletes ‘unaccounted for’ after Glasgow Commonwealth Games

A Ugandan sporting news website said that four members of Uganda’s boxing team have reportedly gone missing. Several athletes are “unaccounted for” after the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games, according to…

Princess Eugenie gives birth to daughter in Portugal

Nicola Sturgeon’s attacks on SNP’s election campaign are wrong: Constance

Norris: Victims’ families ‘carrying the can’ for failure to build enough prisons

Bryant pressed to deliver ‘fair and balanced’ legacy legislation

Original artwork of Bagpuss, The Clangers and Basil Brush fetches £400,000

Bono and Eddie Vedder join stars for funeral of ‘true Dub’ Glen Hansard

First Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in Belfast sees 95% footfall surge

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COMMENT

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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

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…

Mic Wright

Past futures

When we reach for past visions of the future to measure against our reality, we…

Sally Hayden

War reporter

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

Khaled Bazzi

Where hope takes root

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

Rowan Pelling

Letter from the editor

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

Nathaniel Tapley

Cradle of libertines

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

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COMMENT

Sonia Sodha

Breaking the class ceiling

Aspiration and social mobility were at the heart of Tony…

Simon Heffer

New protest laws would be extreme

Having been bored into a stupor by a supposedly Conservative…

Michael Janofsky

Roar deal

A century ago, America was ablaze in progressive change: Jazz. Flappers. Shorter skirts. Speakeasies. The…

Wade Graham

The rewilding Republican

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

Peter Lawlor

Rent in two

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

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Perspectives

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Free as a bird

Keggie Carew

A meditation on our complex relationship with wildness

The many and the few

Amir Amirani

Reflecting on the twentieth anniversary of the Iraq War

The end is nigh for old politics

Lily Webb

The young are desperate for change

Stealth wealth

Róisín Lanigan

A crack in the Millennial dream of equality

Perspectives

All that jazz

Lucy Moore

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

One of us

Nicola Rollock

Social class and race are not mutually exclusive

The Place of No Return

Nick Hunt

The human-caused devastation of the Aral Sea landscape has given birth to the strangest myths

Bacteria Wars

Lee Hudson

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PEOPLE

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The Interview The Interview - Front Page

BY

Lipika Pelham

Zahra Joya

The journalist who was airlifted from Afghanistan discusses dressing as a boy to go to school, running Rukhshana Media from her London bedroom and the women the world has forgotten

In Conversation In Conversation - Front Page

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Rowan Pelling

Lysette Anthony

The actress speaks about the repercussions of outing Harvey Weinstein for repeatedly assaulting her as a young woman

Reputations Reputations - Front Page

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Terence Blacker

Chuck Berry

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

FROM MY PERSPECTIVE - Q&As

Chris Smith

The former Culture Secretary on being the first male MP to come out as gay, the call from Mandela and what It's a Sin revealed

Jeremy Bowen

The BBC International Editor on testifying against Karadžić at The Hague, a brush with bowel cancer and Cardiff bars he'd close during play

Wasfi Kani, CBE

The opera founder on Pimlico, the Merkel arts package shaming Britain and the racist messages that still arrive

Craig Brown

The Private Eye satirist on Haywire, Liz Truss as comedy gold and going blackberrying with John Stonehouse

Daniel Howell

The YouTube comedian on his mental health book, overwatering a bonsai to death and Mr Blobby

Doon Mackichan

The actress, author and Smack the Pony comedian on My Lady Parts, Ricky Gervais turning up to "improve" the show and spray-painting over sexist ads

Andrew Roberts

The Churchill biographer on George III, the 28 charges Jefferson invented and the Hamilton villain history got wrong

John Lloyd

The Spitting Image and Blackadder producer on twenty-one series of QI, why he left satire at 36, and Radio Barking, the comedy station that never aired

Ed Vaizey

The former Culture Minister on meeting Tom Cruise at BAFTA, his cousin the American chant master and what really keeps him awake

Benny Higgins

The Glasgow boy who became a banker on Tesco, five marriages and Kwasi Kwarteng's brief reign of havoc

Dan Snow

The historian on the eighteenth century, a picnic with Hilary Mantel, and covering Britain in windmills

Katy Brand

The comedian on Leo Grande, Dirty Dancing as her Mastermind subject and the pilgrimage that made her an atheist

Sally Phillips

The Smack the Pony comedian on Veep, faith, disability advocacy and the son who's changed how she sees what matters

Lynn Barber

The "Demon Barber" on art, smoking and 80 years of asking the awkward questions

Bobby Seagull

The author, maths teacher, broadcaster and quizzer on his book The Life-changing Magic of Numbers, dancing The Real Dirty Dancing and finding love on Netflix

Kate Mosse

The author and Women's Prize founder on her book Warrior Queens, her great-grandmother written out of history and the woman who foresaw global warming in 1856

DBC Pierre

The Booker winner on Big Snake Little Snake the rabid dog he lied about and what Mexico taught him

Rosie Holt

The actress and comedian behind the spoof Tory MP videos, on Partygate, Suella Braverman's "wokerati" and the Labour MP she fooled

Joanna Lumley

The actress on a Malayan childhood, Genghis Khan beating Trump and the books she wants in her coffin

Michael Holding

The West Indies fast bowler on Why We Kneel, race in cricket and his over against Boycott

FROM MY PERSPECTIVE – Q&As

Wasfi Kani, CBE

The opera founder on Pimlico, the Merkel arts package shaming Britain and the racist messages that still arrive

Doon Mackichan

The actress, author and Smack the Pony comedian on My Lady Parts, Ricky Gervais turning up to "improve" the show and spray-painting over sexist ads

Kate Mosse

The author and Women's Prize founder on her book Warrior Queens, her great-grandmother written out of history and the woman who foresaw global warming in 1856

Tom Curry

The youngest England forward capped in 100 years, on meditation, mullets and Maro Itoje's scrambled eggs

Rosie Boycott

The first woman to edit a UK broadsheet on Spare Rib, addiction and the ladder Thatcher refused to chuck down

Wynne Evans

The GoCompare opera singer on depression, becoming a Welsh druid and being sent into Stephen Hawking's black hole

Lynn Barber

The "Demon Barber" on art, smoking and 80 years of asking the awkward questions

Chris Smith

The former Culture Secretary on being the first male MP to come out as gay, the call from Mandela and what It's a Sin revealed

Katy Brand

The comedian on Leo Grande, Dirty Dancing as her Mastermind subject and the pilgrimage that made her an atheist

Sally Phillips

The Smack the Pony comedian on Veep, faith, disability advocacy and the son who's changed how she sees what matters

Ed Balls

The former Shadow Chancellor on his book Appetite, the Granita dinner with no polenta, and a midlife crisis going really well

Zandra Rhodes

The fashion designer on Divine, Freddie Mercury and 55 years of not getting pig-headed

Rosie Holt

The actress and comedian behind the spoof Tory MP videos, on Partygate, Suella Braverman's "wokerati" and the Labour MP she fooled

DBC Pierre

The Booker winner on Big Snake Little Snake the rabid dog he lied about and what Mexico taught him

Daniel Howell

The YouTube comedian on his mental health book, overwatering a bonsai to death and Mr Blobby

Michael Holding

The West Indies fast bowler on Why We Kneel, race in cricket and his over against Boycott

Jeremy Paxman

The Newsnight inquisitor on lying bastards, the Enigma machine he was sent and his dog Derek

Lucy Easthope

The disaster planner and recover expert on her book When the Dust Settles, the Welsh word hiraeth for aching loss and a friend's correct snack ratio for the bunker

Lucy Hughes-Hallett

The historian, biographer and novelist on her book The Scapegoat, her D'Annunzio biography The Pike, and why the King James Bible is the reason reggae lyrics are so gorgeous

Phil Hammond

The doctor, comedian and Private Eye columnist on the Bristol heart scandal, Jacob Rees-Mogg and why health is not what happens in hospitals

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CULTURE

MORE AUTHOR INTERVIEWS

Author Interview - Front Page The author Interview

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Helen Brown

“The current generation don’t seem to be using their power for much more than shooting penis-shaped rockets into outer space”

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

Mary Beard

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

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

Hanna Pylväinen

The Whiting Award and Balcones Fiction Prize-winner discusses her novel The End of Drum-Time, the Lutheran church she left at 21 and growing up with seven siblings and thirteen aunts and uncles

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

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

Gothic delights

Elizabeth Sharkey

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

FILM

The life fantastic

Anne Billson

STYLE

Girls will be boys

Christobel Kent

POETRY

Hermeneutics by Rebecca Hurst

There's a Walrus on My Windscreen by Ian Humphreys

Tight Little Island by Rishi Dastidar

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

I Am Waiting For You by Risalet Merdan

ART

Art in an emergency

Max Lunn

MUSIC

Prisoner with a key

Laura Barton

CULTURE

The author Interview

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Helen Brown

“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 book Shy, Cillian Murphy at the Barbican and blocking a Chilterns road with branches aged ten

Sarah Hall

Novelist Sarah Hall on her Goldsmiths Prize-shortlisted Helm, why it took over twenty years to write a biography of Britain's only named wind, climate collapse, "radical optimism," and the power of imaginative storytelling to transform how we think about environmental crisis

Tessa Hadley

The critically acclaimed novelist discusses her 1950s-set novella The Party, why female writers dread sex scenes and male writers don't, and starting her career at 46