What’s Xi Jinping really thinking? Ask Kevin Rudd, ex-PM of Australia and fluent Mandarin speaker
An ageing dictator, looking to his legacy, pushes the button on a long-planned invasion of a smaller neighbour. The fiction of an “international community” is quickly exposed:…
Want to understand the English class system? Don’t ask this German
The late Duke of Westminster said, “Given the choice I would rather not have been born wealthy, but I never think of giving it up. I can’t…
The Bin Laden Papers: al-Qaeda’s secret documents – and delusions – finally revealed
Might it have worked? Not according to former US general Joseph Votel. Al-Qaeda could have sunk the tankers, argues Votel, but this would not have destroyed the…
A Very English Scandal: Norman Scott’s new autobiography spares no grisly detail about Jeremy Thorpe
It all begins so well. In his first ever autobiography, Norman Scott, now 82, writes a charming preface describing his current life on Dartmoor, with his dogs,…
Why are the English so squeamish about patriotism?
They include the terrible tragedy of the Chinese cockle pickers drowned in Morecambe Bay by the inrushing tide; the manslaughter of a Polish settler in the aftermath…
Why did we start treating Margaret Atwood as a prophet?
For decades, Margaret Atwood occupied a cosy place in the world of literature. She had a recognizable name, she wrote well written if not formally daring fiction…
Yuck! This new biography of Carrie Johnson is absolutely enraging
I’m no advocate of cancel culture but these two little words pretty much sum up the writer’s antediluvian mindset. There are other clues. Do any of us…
Against the Tide by Roger Scruton, review: a fitting tribute to the Tories’ philosopher king
His longing for “refuge from an alien world” is a recurring theme, yet so too is his unquenchable spirit of adventure. That tension animates his prose, never…
The best new British politics books to buy for Christmas 2021
Five and a half years after the referendum, arguments about Brexit are still capable of ruining your Christmas lunch. But at least the questions it has reignited…