Perspective Media | Read the world differently

LATEST HEADLINES

Assisted dying Bill MP ‘confident’ Commons will vote yes despite PM abstaining

The legislation is back in Parliament after running out of time earlier this year. The MP now fronting the proposal to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales has insisted…

Be careful what you post on social media, MP warns, after tweet apology

Milei declares ‘Falklands are Argentinean’ amid oil sanctions

Farage to address Reform conference as party reported to police over funding

Aardman puppets including Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep go to auction

‘Death defying’ eagle spotted three years after breaking wing as chick

Retail footfall down despite return of shoppers after heatwave

Man given genetically modified pig kidney for nine months in world first

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

Why Labour has to be conservative

Here’s a paradox for you: Britain is a conservative country that hates the Conservative party. As our American cousins vulgarly say: “Do the math.” On 4 July 24 per cent…

Guy Shrubsole

English pastoral

Guy Shrubsole explores England’s buried tradition of land reform, where less than one percent of…

Michael Janofsky

Long division

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

Khaled Bazzi

Where hope takes root

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

Lucy Moore

All that jazz

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

Rowan Pelling

Letter from the editor

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

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 pitfalls of assisted dying

One of the first concepts new students of philosophy are…

Simon Heffer

Why Labour has to be conservative

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

Sarah Hall

Natural hazards

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

Nathaniel Tapley

Cradle of libertines

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

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…

VIEW ALL

Perspectives

VIEW ALL

Free as a bird

Keggie Carew

A meditation on our complex relationship with wildness

More than the sum of our parts

Diana Thomas

Our common identity runs deeper than our individuality

All my friends are having Botox now

Róisín Lanigan

Reviled swimmers

Claudia Cockerell

Restricted access to clean waters leads to legal action

Perspectives

All that jazz

Lucy Moore

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

Fierce courage

Rick Stroud

How a Belgian princess, a waitress and a British nurse risked their lives during WWI

The 15-minute protesters

Fred Skulthorp

Green measures are stirring up populist dissent

The many and the few

Amir Amirani

Reflecting on the twentieth anniversary of the Iraq War

VIEW ALL

PEOPLE

VIEW ALL

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 TCE

BY

Rowan Pelling

Dominic Cummings

The Brexit strategist on a start-up party he's drafting, Brexit, the covid inquiry, Whitehall and other shit-shows

Reputations Reputations - Front Page TCE

BY

Ben Wilson

Pasquale Paoli

The Corsican guerilla commander who inspired the modern quest for charismatic political leaders

FROM MY PERSPECTIVE - Q&As

Mike Figgis

The composer and Leaving Las Vegas director on Timecode written as a string quartet, refusing the Hollywood club and missing his friend Julian Sands

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

Michael Holding

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

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

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

Ed Balls

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

DBC Pierre

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

Benny Higgins

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

Vince Cable

The former Lib Dem leader on Strictly, the Murdoch hidden mic and a Quaker chocolate childhood in York

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

Robert Peston

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

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

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

Zandra Rhodes

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

Sally Phillips

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

Joanna Lumley

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

Lord David Owen

The former Foreign Secretary and co-founder of the SDP on two centuries of British-Russian relations, Brexit and being Steel's pocket puppet

Rosie Holt

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

Daniel Howell

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

FROM MY PERSPECTIVE – Q&As

Zandra Rhodes

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

Benny Higgins

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

Rosie Boycott

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

Dan Snow

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

Lynn Barber

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

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

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

Joanna Lumley

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

Mike Figgis

The composer and Leaving Las Vegas director on Timecode written as a string quartet, refusing the Hollywood club and missing his friend Julian Sands

Wynne Evans

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

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

Daniel Howell

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

Ed Vaizey

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

Ed Balls

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

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

Jeremy Paxman

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

Michael Holding

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

Katy Brand

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

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

Wasfi Kani, CBE

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

VIEW ALL

CULTURE

MORE AUTHOR INTERVIEWS

Author Interview - Front Page The author Interview

by

Helen Brown

“Most people, most of the time, are if not collaborators then co-operators with the ruling regime”

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

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

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

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

There’s always whisky

Miranda Seymour

Jean Rhys, literary genius and troubled alcoholic

FILM

Poverty porn

Anne Billson

STYLE

Dressing for doomsday

Christobel Kent

POETRY

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

Blood Moon by Gillian Clarke

Tight Little Island by Rishi Dastidar

Hermeneutics by Rebecca Hurst

There's a Walrus on My Windscreen by Ian Humphreys

ART

Digital art merits attention

Max Lunn

MUSIC

Get Back

Laura Barton

CULTURE

Author Interview - Front Page TCE The author Interview

by

Helen Brown

“Mum set up the company just after her fifth child, my younger brother, left home”

Francesca Beauman

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

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

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