The spread of Wahhabism, and the West’s responsibility to the world
In 2013, the European Union declared Wahhabism the main source of global terrorism. But it's not just a “Middle East…
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Terror vs the State
An English hero for the ages: Ian Botham at 60
Botham blends his sportsmanship and deep-seated passion for cricket with a lust for life.
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Islamist terror, security and the Hobbesian question of order
Liberals often worry about the need to protect citizens from the state. Yet in the age of global terror,…
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Why Tehran hates Isis: how religious rifts are fueling conflict
Above all, the Islamic republic wants stability – and to fight back against a group that despises Shia Muslims.
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Raving with my baby at the new “toddler raves“
The looming Hackney Wick warehouse had been filled with playdoh and glowsticks as dads danced to acid house. I wondered: what…
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Leader: No sense of an ending to austerity
The UK is now committed to another five years of excessive and ill-directed austerity.
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Why divided Brussels is the perfect hideout for jihadists
Counterterrorism requires on-the-ground policing in tandem with centralised control. Belgium’s fragmented political set-up is not conducive.
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Why the CIA torture techniques aren’t a reliable way of extracting information
Far from getting reliable information, torture is a gruelling process that yields few results - and harm for both…
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How African boys are trafficked to Europe for football trials
Field of dreams? Footie may be only a pretext for young boys to leave Africa.
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Clash of the titans: when Boris Johnson met Mary Beard
The debate brought out a series of old divides: Oxford vs Cambridge, Left vs Right. . . Greece vs Rome.
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Commons confidential: Away in Pret a Manger
Corbyn's lunch, a Keith "Vazz" hunch and the New Left Book club.
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How a dark night for Paris was made easier by British messages of support
The French ambassador to the UK reflects on the Paris attacks, and how Britain's response helped make the aftermath…
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Utopia now: why there’s never been a more urgent time to dream of a better world
Right now, the future seems dark and frightening and it is precisely now that we must continue to imagine…
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The attack on Les Bleus was an attack on the soul of France – that’s why Euro 2016 must go ahead
As a continent reels politically from the refugee crisis and emotionally from the Paris attacks, football must find a…
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A tale of two polls, the MPs that didn’t bark, and finding inner peace in a darkened room
In weeks like this, I wish that I had the ability to switch off and didn’t find myself reading…
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How did I, obsessed with non-places, not know about the Trafford Centre?
My wife had booked us all in to a showing of the latest Bond film at the IMAX Cinema…
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White whale in the big smoke: How the geography of London inspired Moby-Dick
Late at night, Herman Melville “turned flukes” down Oxford Street as if he were being followed by a great whale,…
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The Camus of the crime thriller: behind the Jack Reacher books
Andy Martin's Reacher Said Nothing: Lee Child and the Making of “Make Me” gives us a fly-on-the-wall view of the…
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My time as an old woman with a £4,000 prosthetic face, working for the Daily Mail
On the Tube, a man offered me his seat. “I’m not an old woman,” I told him. “I’m a Daily…
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Jonathan Coe’s Number 11 is a bitingly dark portrait of society
A spider’s web of money binds lives together in Coe's state-of-the-nation novel.
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Matches made in heaven: Carol and Bridge of Spies
Todd Haynes' Carol is as tantalising as hearing a tender ballad on a tinpot transistor. Plus: Bridge of Spies.
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On the trail of Keith Jarrett’s melodies
Lose focus for a second and you can quickly drop the thread of Jarrett's complex improvisational techniques.
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“Is it ever worth getting back with an ex?“: Love surgery on Radio 1
The Surgery with Gemma and Dr Radha took its young listeners beyond the posturing of love.
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What is “narrow banking“ – and could it put finance right?
Other People’s Money and Between Debt and the Devil approach finance from different angles, but arrive at a single policy.
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I’ve been ill again – and the finger of suspicion points to an empty packet of gummy bears
I have to isolate which aspect of my behaviour it is that is causing me to fall so ill, so frequently.…
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Modern footballers are thin, primped and fast. I miss the tatty fatties
Modern players are not just super-toned and super-fit but super-fast. Slowcoaches are weeded out at birth.
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Maggie’s schizophrenia was bad, but was it bad enough to have her sectioned?
The assessment might have trashed my timetable but it was an afternoon well spent.
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Video games will shape how we understand the world
Gaming is frequently touted as an escape from the world - but it can also be a guide to…
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Mourinho the tactician and Wenger the educator – both are perfectionists, just different kinds
When Mourinho described Wenger as “a specialist in failure”, it was not cruelly accurate but sadly false. It showed…
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The BBC’s Capital is that rare thing: an adaptation better than the book
It may not make for happy viewing, but excellent acting elevates Capital above its rather schematic progenitor.
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Befriending barn owls – the spirits of the night
The Polish for “barn owl”, płomykówka, evokes the birds’ flame-like plumage - and their presence evokes old magic.
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