Perspective Media | Read the world differently

LATEST HEADLINES

Oasis’s Wonderwall streaming numbers soar after England’s triumph over Norway

The hit track has become an unofficial anthem for England during the 2026 World Cup. Oasis’s hit 1995 song Wonderwall increased its listening figures by more than half after England’s…

Two men die after entering sea to help children in difficulty

Man ‘with stick left house linked to Widdecombe murder suspect and drove away’

Arthur Fery tells Kate that George and Charlotte can play tennis with him

Two British hikers found alive but badly burned following Spanish wildfires

Man arrested over murder of 24-year-old woman in double stabbing

Hillsborough Law to return to Commons on Tuesday, after fears about summer delay

Parts of UK at ‘exceptional’ risk of wildfires as heatwave goes on

MORE NEWS

COMMENT

VIEW ALL

Sonia Sodha

Breaking the class ceiling

Aspiration and social mobility were at the heart of Tony Blair’s “education, education, education” pitch in 1997. They are similarly echoed in Keir Starmer’s vision for Britain: he has repeatedly framed his desire to be…

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…

Sarah Hall

Natural hazards

The first novel that truly affected me as a young reader was eschatological in nature.…

Sam Fowles

Unfree speech

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

Khaled Bazzi

Where hope takes root

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

Sam Fowles

Might is not right

The date of 26 January 2024 may become a watershed moment in the history of…

Michael Janofsky

Long division

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

GET THE PERSPECTIVE NEWSLETTER

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

Why Labour has to be conservative

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

Peter Phelps

Free for all

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

Nathaniel Tapley

Passing as upper class

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

Michael Janofsky

Defensive positions

When I was a kid and the Cold War was in full bloom, we were…

VIEW ALL

Perspectives

VIEW ALL

Free as a bird

Keggie Carew

A meditation on our complex relationship with wildness

Fake farm story

Joy Lo Dico

Shouldn’t we be doing more for British farmers?

Living on cloud wine

Nick Cohen

Our society's cavalier attitude towards alcoholism

All my friends are having Botox now

Róisín Lanigan

Perspectives

The end of days

Boris Starling

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

AI: A wake-up call

Khaled Bazzi

The wheel turns

Nick Hunt

Why doomsday scenarios appeal to our linear concept of time

One of us

Nicola Rollock

Social class and race are not mutually exclusive

VIEW ALL

PEOPLE

VIEW ALL

TCE The Interview The Interview - Front Page

BY

Gavin Esler

Henry Dimbleby

The food entrepreneur and writer one how our diet is killing us but politicians and big business don’t want to know

In Conversation In Conversation - Front Page

BY

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

BY

Simon Heffer

Chips Channon

Brilliance blighted by poor judgment

FROM MY PERSPECTIVE - Q&As

Wynne Evans

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

Joanna Lumley

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

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

Chris van Tulleken

The infectious diseases doctor, author and science presenter on what's really in our food, the politics of poverty, and his "anti-telepathic" twin

Robert Peston

The ITV political editor on his book Bust?, Trussonomics and the schools charity that's reached half a million children

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

Sally Phillips

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

Benny Higgins

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

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

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

Zandra Rhodes

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

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

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

Ed Vaizey

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

Craig Brown

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

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

Daniel Howell

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

Ronni Ancona

The comedian, actress and filmmaker on her mahout childhood ambition, the cat who smokes Rothmans and the wildlife agency she calls green spies

FROM MY PERSPECTIVE – Q&As

Rosie Holt

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

Robert Peston

The ITV political editor on his book Bust?, Trussonomics and the schools charity that's reached half a million children

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

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

Craig Brown

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

Ed Balls

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

Lynn Barber

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

Zandra Rhodes

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

Andrew Roberts

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

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

Sally Phillips

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

Michael Holding

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

Joanna Lumley

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

Dan Snow

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

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

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

Wasfi Kani, CBE

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

Katy Brand

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

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

VIEW ALL

CULTURE

MORE AUTHOR INTERVIEWS

Author Interview - Front Page TCE The author Interview

by

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, why female writers dread sex scenes and male writers don't, and starting her career at 46

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

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

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

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

Apocalypse now and then

Anne Billson

STYLE

Dressing for doomsday

Christobel Kent

POETRY

There's a Walrus on My Windscreen by Ian Humphreys

I Am Waiting For You by Risalet Merdan

Tight Little Island by Rishi Dastidar

Hermeneutics by Rebecca Hurst

Blood Moon by Gillian Clarke

ART

Art is not a luxury

Rachel Campbell Johnston

MUSIC

Sucking the marrow out of life

Laura Barton

CULTURE

Books

by

Helen Brown

Ashley Ford

The writer, essayist and podcaster on her memoir Somebody's Daughter, the burning-snakes lesson in never letting go, a childhood coded for shame and why curiosity has always outrun her fear

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

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