Perspective Media | Read the world differently

LATEST HEADLINES

‘Mainstream majority’ do not want Farage or Polanski as PM, Starmer says

The Prime Minister spoke to backbenchers at a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party on Monday. A “mainstream majority” of voters do not want Nigel Farage or Zack Polanski to…

Christian leaders urge MSPs to vote against assisted dying Bill

Gathering in Belfast condemns Israeli and US attacks on Iran

Iran attack ‘against international system’, says Swinney

‘Disappointing’ NI First Minister not at UK briefings on Iran – Little-Pengelly

Temperatures set to reach 18C this week as meteorological spring begins

BrewDog: List of 38 bars closing down and 11 included in rescue deal

I trusted fellow pilot ‘wholeheartedly’, paramotorist tells fatal accident probe

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…

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…

Rowan Pelling

Letter from the editor

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

Khaled Bazzi

Where hope takes root

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

Peter Lawlor

Rent in two

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

Mic Wright

Past futures

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

GET THE PERSPECTIVE NEWSLETTER

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

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…

Christopher Hart

Hedge fund

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

Sam Fowles

Unfree speech

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

Wade Graham

The rewilding Republican

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

VIEW ALL

Perspectives

VIEW ALL

Free as a bird

Keggie Carew

A meditation on our complex relationship with wildness

Baby Doomers

Róisín Lanigan

Falling birth rates are a sign of existential angst

One of us

Nicola Rollock

Social class and race are not mutually exclusive

Bacteria Wars

Lee Hudson

Perspectives

All that jazz

Lucy Moore

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

The Place of No Return

Nick Hunt

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

Silence of the lambs

Fred Skulthorp

The Left’s embrace of the covid consensus has badly impacted the world’s poor

Fantastic fungi

Nick Hunt

Why we should lose our fear of the ancient art of foraging

VIEW ALL

PEOPLE

VIEW ALL

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

BY

Andrew Lownie

Earl Mountbatten

Re-evaluating the legacy of one of the last century’s most controversial leaders

FROM MY PERSPECTIVE - Q&As

Chris van Tulleken

Doctor, author and science presenter

Dan Snow

Historian and TV presenter

Phil Hammond

Doctor, comedian, journalist

Joanna Lumley

Actress, campaigner and national treasure

Lynn Barber

author and journalist

Tom Curry

England Rugby International and Sale Sharks Flanker

Andrew Roberts

Historian and journalist

John Lloyd

Producer of Blackadder and Spitting Image

Chris Smith

Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge, and former Culture Secretary

Wasfi Kani, CBE

Founder of Pimlico Opera and Grange Park Opera

Bobby Seagull

Maths teacher, author and TV broadcaster

Ed Balls

Economist, broadcaster and former cabinet minister

Katie Brand

Award-winning writer and comedian

Daniel Howell

Author, entertainer and comedian

Ed Vaizey

Member of the House of Lords

DBC Pierre

Booker Prize-winning author

Lucy Hughes-Hallett

Historian, biographer, novelist

Zandra Rhodes

Fashion designer

Doon Mackichan

actress, comedian, author

Michael Holding

Former West Indies Test cricketer and Sky Sports commentator

FROM MY PERSPECTIVE – Q&As

Doon Mackichan

actress, comedian, author

Lynn Barber

author and journalist

Vince Cable

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

Ronni Ancona

Comedian, actress and filmmaker

Wasfi Kani, CBE

Founder of Pimlico Opera and Grange Park Opera

Andrew Roberts

Historian and journalist

Tom Curry

England Rugby International and Sale Sharks Flanker

Chris van Tulleken

Doctor, author and science presenter

Katie Brand

Award-winning writer and comedian

Robert Peston

ITV News political editor and presenter of Peston

Lucy Easthope

Disaster planner and recovery expert

Wynne Evans

Opera singer and radio presenter

Lord David Owen

Former foreign secretary and co-founder of the SDP

Ed Balls

Economist, broadcaster and former cabinet minister

John Lloyd

Producer of Blackadder and Spitting Image

Ed Vaizey

Member of the House of Lords

Benny Higgins

Banker

Jeremy Paxman

Journalist, broadcaster and quizmaster

Mike Figgis

Film director, composer, musician

Phil Hammond

Doctor, comedian, journalist

VIEW ALL

CULTURE

MORE AUTHOR INTERVIEWS

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

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

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

Hanna Pylväinen

Whiting Award and Balcones Fiction Prize-winner discusses her strict Lutheran upbringing and her novel The End of Drum-Time

FEATURES

Gothic delights

Elizabeth Sharkey

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

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

Acts of sedition

Pauline F Kiernan

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

FILM

Gangster wrap

Anne Billson

STYLE

Anything goes

Christobel Kent

POETRY

Hermeneutics by Rebecca Hurst

Blood Moon by Gillian Clarke

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

Tight Little Island by Rishi Dastidar

There's a Walrus on My Windscreen by Ian Humphreys

ART

New images, new perceptions

Max Lunn

MUSIC

Sucking the marrow out of life

Laura Barton

CULTURE

The author Interview

by

Helen Brown

“For too long, women writing literary fiction – especially the funny kind – were not being taken seriously”

Amanda Craig

Discusses older women and her new book The Three Graces

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