Why the rich fall for bullshit therapy
It sounds like a Netflix thriller. First, the mysterious death: an aging high-street fashion mogul falls to his death from a scenic coastal precipice while…
Christopher Nolan: Hollywood’s last hero
Christopher Nolan has described the Homeric source material of his new film of The Odyssey as “foundational” for his work. On the surface, it’s a banal comment, too vague to…
Why the British hate their councils
“Growth in every corner of the country”, “more money in people’s pockets”, and “people taking back control of what matters to them”: these three phrases could summarize Andy Burnham’s big…
Israel doesn’t need friends
The classic definition of a Great Power is a country that can wage war without allies. Unbeknownst even to its own leaders, Israel must have been a Great Power from…
The Labour Party is insulting
In politics as in football, play is paused to allow the injured to leave the field. During Starmer’s final PMQs on Wednesday, Kemi Badenoch desisted from attacking, delivering a warm…
A novelist’s dark portrait of Natalie Portman
The actor Natalie Portman has long seemed more like a person who wants to brand herself as smart than like a person who is actually smart — and her decision…
England’s blind hope
For days before England played Argentina in the World Cup semi-final, the old dread had been rising in me like damp through a wall. England against Argentina has never once…
Argentina: World Cup villains
Argentina’s win over a faint-hearted England — in a decisive comeback of the sort now all but routine for the South American squad — should banish much of the “VARgentina”…
Why true crime isn’t real
As a writer of murder mysteries, I often joke that making these stories believable requires making them profoundly unrealistic — simply because actual crimes and the investigation thereof have a…
A day in the life of Farageland’s Wetherspoons
It is a blindingly sunny morning in Clacton-on-Sea and the Moon and Starfish is already rammed. The punters are drinking pints of lager on bright plastic chairs in the garden…
How passwords stole my sanity
Many of us have been surprised when the removal of the wall of a house or office reveals a Jackson Pollock drip-painting of copper wires, fiber-optic cables, water pipes, and…