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Sonia Sodha

The pitfalls of assisted dying

One of the first concepts new students of philosophy are introduced to is Isaiah Berlin’s famous distinction between “freedom to” and “freedom from”: an illustration of the fact that giving…

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

Past futures

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

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…

Sarah Hall

Natural hazards

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

Peter Lawlor

Creative destruction

According to a quip once made by Peter Ustinov, “Just before the world blows itself…

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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

Correcting our Grammar mistake

During the Blair years, when recalcitrant Conservatives longed for a…

Kate Devlin

You’re on camera

There’s a quotation by American historian Timothy Snyder currently circulating on social media. It comes…

Wade Graham

The rewilding Republican

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

Michael Janofsky

America’s third man

With all the focus on Joe Biden-Donald Trump redux, it’s easy to ignore more than…

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Perspectives

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Snob value

Philip Hensher

Looking down your nose at “common” behaviour can create a constructive social dynamic

Beside the sea

Madeleine Bunting

English seaside resorts evoke both deep nostalgia and class divisions

The funk of flunk

Cosmo Landesman

There’s an art to failing gracefully

A calamity of lost youth

Toby Green

High numbers of deaths among young people are being ignored by the media and politicians

Perspectives

The end of days

Boris Starling

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

Faux fizz

Rebecca Gibb

The dishonourable history of wine fraud, from fake bubbly to bogus Bordeaux

Dollar fever

Frances Coppola

Competing currencies won’t unlock the world from the shackles of US financial hegemony

Fantastic fungi

Nick Hunt

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

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PEOPLE

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TCE The Interview The Interview - Front Page

BY

Gavin Esler

Sathnam Sanghera

The British writer who says our multicultural empire led to a multicultural society

In Conversation In Conversation - Front Page TCE

BY

Rowan Pelling

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

Reputations Reputations - Front Page

BY

Simon Heffer

Chips Channon

Brilliance blighted by poor judgment

FROM MY PERSPECTIVE - Q&As

Lynn Barber

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

Wynne Evans

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

Wasfi Kani, CBE

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

Vince Cable

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

Dan Snow

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

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

Craig Brown

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

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

Jeremy Paxman

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

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

DBC Pierre

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

Andrew Roberts

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

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

Sally Phillips

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

Tom Curry

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

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

Benny Higgins

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

Ed Vaizey

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

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

Zandra Rhodes

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

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

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

Andrew Roberts

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

Dan Snow

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

Jeremy Paxman

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

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

Sally Phillips

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

Vince Cable

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ed Balls

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

Michael Holding

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

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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

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

Cathy Newman

Channel 4’s first female news anchor discusses trailblazing women, internet trolls, sexual assault and her book The Ladder

FEATURES

Zealots not harlots

Elizabeth Sharkey

How Quaker dissenters became England’s first feminists

There’s always whisky

Miranda Seymour

Jean Rhys, literary genius and troubled alcoholic

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

Primetime Potus

Anne Billson

STYLE

Anything goes

Christobel Kent

POETRY

I Am Waiting For You by Risalet Merdan

There's a Walrus on My Windscreen by Ian Humphreys

Hermeneutics by Rebecca Hurst

Tight Little Island by Rishi Dastidar

Blood Moon by Gillian Clarke

ART

New images, new perceptions

Max Lunn

MUSIC

Sucking the marrow out of life

Laura Barton

CULTURE

Book Book Review

by

Helen Brown

Lisa Taddeo

The novelist on her blood-soaked debut Animal, why the world divides into those who have suffered and those who deny it, female rage and reporting back from the depths

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