It is easy to spot media sexism towards women in government. There are the comments about Jacqui Smith’s cleavage and Caroline Flint’s “flouncing”, the damning scrutiny of what women MPs wear – from bitchy remarks that whatever Harriet Harman spends her income on, it’s not clothes to Anne McElvoy’s dismissal of Flint’s appearance in Observer Woman as “upholstered in orange silk”. (When David Miliband did a shoot for GQ last [...]

In the 1997 edition of his pamphlet Why Scots Should Rule Scotland, the wonderful curmudgeon Alasdair Gray begins his “carnaptious history of Britain from the Roman times until now” with two clarifying points. He defines “Scots” as “everyone in Scotland who is able to vote”, and argues for independence not “on differences of race, language or religion but geology” – the natural divisions created by seas and mountain ranges. (Writing [...]

These days, LCD screens are an ines­capable part of the view: on computers, in televisions, as digital adverts, on mobile phones. But as ubiquitous as they are, the technology behind them is seldom thought of as revolutionary. However, Mary Lou Jepsen’s innovations are the exception. As chief technology officer at the non-profit organisation One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), the pioneering screen designer created the first laptop for the developing world. [...]

Working in a bar with hardened regulars, real old soaks, can feel a bit like being an executioner, except that you earn just a minimum wage and your victims do most of the work for you. Alcoholism is a horrible spectacle and bartenders have a ringside seat, watching their customers dismantle their lives as they start by losing little things, such as the money in their pocket and the power of speech, [...]

As Wall Street continues to flounder, can garage bands and grubby dive bars save the New York economy? Elizabeth Currid, author of The Warhol Economy and a professor of urban planning at the University of Southern California, certainly seems to think so. And, as she argued to a small audience at the Institute for Public Policy Research on a grey Tuesday lunchtime in early March, the “cultural economy” could be [...]

With recession-hit designers forgoing catwalk shows in London Fashion Week, and high-street clothing chains feeling the pinch, these are dark days for fashion retailers. For fashion followers, on the other hand, the atmosphere of economic austerity is providing an unlikely boost for sartorial flamboyance. As consumers tighten their belt, in the usual financial sense, various innovative websites offering couture for free (or nearly free) are enjoying a surge in activity. [...]

In recent years, the British have been characterised as narcissistic, therapy-obsessed loners. So, the latest British Social Attitudes survey makes particularly cheerful reading. It seems that while we acknowledge that it's good to talk, the majority of us rely on friends and family for emotional support, rather than therapists or counsellors. Just 16 per cent of us have ever visited a listening professional, whereas 70 per cent have at least [...]

Several years before Elizabeth Gilbert wrote Eat, Pray, Love, her multimillion selling memoir of a year spent travelling the world in pursuit of spiritual wellbeing after a bad divorce, she profiled an altogether more unusual character than herself. Part naturalist, part evangelical utopian, ­Eustace Conway - the subject of The Last American Man - could also out-rugged the Marlboro Man. Huntin', shootin' and fishin' only make up the tiniest part [...]

If you were looking for evidence of a literary gene, the three Foer brothers' collective CV would be a persuasive place to start. Jonathan Safran Foer, the middle sibling, is a celebrated Brooklyn-based novelist while the eldest brother, Franklin, is editor of the New Republic and author of How Football Explains the World. Now there is the youngest Foer, Joshua. His first book, Moonwalking With Einstein, an examination of "the [...]

“I dedicate this book to every boy who was ever made to suffer in the cupboard under the stairs,” Frank Prime solemnly intones in his book, a misery memoir recounting an abused childhood in an isolated farmhouse. It is a bestseller, and Frank receives sympathy from round after round of interviewers, but as far as his siblings are concerned, the harsh upbringing he describes never happened.

Focusing on the Prime [...]