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…
COMMENT
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…
Cradle of libertines
England likes to think of itself as “the cradle of liberty”. True, if you think…
High society
In 1989, Richard Hoggart wrote in his introduction to George Orwell’s The Road to Wigan…
Where hope takes root
As headlines veer toward the apocalyptic – from collapsing ecosystems to vanishing species – it’s…
Falling better
The only thing slower than writing books, it seems, is publishing them. The mechanisms of…
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COMMENT
Correcting our Grammar mistake
During the Blair years, when recalcitrant Conservatives longed for a…
History’s false promises
In 2015, when interviewing Jonathan Sumption, Matt Stadlen asked a deceptively simple question: “Why does…
War reporter
Cambridge In early September I attended the British Red Cross summer school in international humanitarian…
Bonkers bunkers
In December 2023 Ron Hubbard, a security consultant from Texas (not to be confused with…
Perspectives
Flying the flag
The rise of Britain's new patriotism: loud, flag-obsessed and convinced the nation is falling apart
The colder war
AI weaponry has already made sci-fi a reality, so the big question is: can we control the machines?
Perspectives
AI makes you stupid
What happens to memory, critical thinking and learned skills when we increasingly outsource our thinking to AI?
Lessons from History
We asked some of our favourite historians and writers what key insights they have gained from studying the past
PEOPLE
PEOPLE
Shami Chakrabarti
Lawyer and human rights activist Shami Chakrabarti defends the ECHR and discusses how notions of liberty are inverted to justify oppression
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 album RökFlöte
FROM MY PERSPECTIVE - Q&As
Ed Vaizey
The former Culture Minister on meeting Tom Cruise at BAFTA, his cousin the American chant master and what really keeps him awake
Robert Peston
The ITV political editor on his book Bust?, Trussonomics and the schools charity that's reached half a million children
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
Rosie Holt
The actress and comedian behind the spoof Tory MP videos, on Partygate, Suella Braverman's "wokerati" and the Labour MP she fooled
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
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
Tom Curry
The youngest England forward capped in 100 years, on meditation, mullets and Maro Itoje's scrambled eggs
Daniel Howell
The YouTube comedian on his mental health book, overwatering a bonsai to death and Mr Blobby
DBC Pierre
The Booker winner on Big Snake Little Snake the rabid dog he lied about and what Mexico taught him
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
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
Rosie Boycott
The first woman to edit a UK broadsheet on Spare Rib, addiction and the ladder Thatcher refused to chuck down
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
Michael Holding
The West Indies fast bowler on Why We Kneel, race in cricket and his over against Boycott
Vince Cable
The former Lib Dem leader on Strictly, the Murdoch hidden mic and a Quaker chocolate childhood in York
Jeremy Paxman
The Newsnight inquisitor on lying bastards, the Enigma machine he was sent and his dog Derek
Wasfi Kani, CBE
The opera founder on Pimlico, the Merkel arts package shaming Britain and the racist messages that still arrive
Dan Snow
The historian on the eighteenth century, a picnic with Hilary Mantel, and covering Britain in windmills
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
FROM MY PERSPECTIVE – Q&As
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
Joanna Lumley
The actress on a Malayan childhood, Genghis Khan beating Trump and the books she wants in her coffin
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
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
Tom Curry
The youngest England forward capped in 100 years, on meditation, mullets and Maro Itoje's scrambled eggs
Benny Higgins
The Glasgow boy who became a banker on Tesco, five marriages and Kwasi Kwarteng's brief reign of havoc
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
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
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
Ed Vaizey
The former Culture Minister on meeting Tom Cruise at BAFTA, his cousin the American chant master and what really keeps him awake
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
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
Robert Peston
The ITV political editor on his book Bust?, Trussonomics and the schools charity that's reached half a million children
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 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
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
CULTURE
FEATURES
Gothic delights
Exploring the history of a genre that first bewitched Elizabeth as a teenage Joy Division fan
Acts of sedition
Shakespeare’s Richard II was pure treason, so how did he get away with it? asks the author
CULTURE
“All I had ever wanted to do was write a novel. When I held the first copy, aged 42, I cried”
Emma Flint
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
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
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
FEATURES
The politics of colour
Tina Gharavi’s full response to the controversy surrounding Queen Cleopatra, a Netflix series about the identity of the legendary last pharaoh
POETRY
Book Reviews
LIFE
Free spirit
How a gap year full of travel and adventure became a “gap life” boundaried only by possibility and curiosity
LIFE
Mid-life fever
A return to India prompts reflection on cycles of change in medicine and life
Alas, poor Yorick
When your childhood garden is a charnel house, and skeletons your toys
LETTERS FROM ELSEWHERE
LETTERS FROM ELSEWHERE
MIND OVER MATTER
Neurological-based
advice
FROM DR ASH RANPURA
MIND OVER MATTER
Neurological-based
advice
FROM DR ASH RANPURA