Blond’s Encyclical
The policies of Phillip Blond, David Cameron's 'philosopher king', are confused and wooly
Politics, Ideas and the Arts
Towers of Silence
Swiss women struck at the minarets because, with the stifling dominance of liberal discourse, it's impossible to strike at anything else
Experts and Axioms
When politics has entered the scientific debate over climate change, how can we trust the experts? Is the world getting hotter, and are humans responsible? Two questions there, and I don’t know
Civil Society
Civility has become the new political buzz word, but its meaning has been distorted to suit the left-liberal consensus Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary contains some lovely lines. One of them, as I learned
Friend to the End
The experience of a dying friend shows that nursing home staff can prove to be good friends in death It’s many years since I was a monk and thus a professional in the death
Tale of Two Meals
Encouraging a chef’s creativity is fine, until you’re served a triangular wafer in a cocktail glass Recently, I was lucky enough to spend a week in Avignon. The hotel was excellent, the
Making an Impression
A new exhibition in Madrid casts a rich new light on the 19th-century French masters In April 1874, a group of young French artists shunned by the art establishment held an exhibition
Any Answers…
Interesting exercise, my call for questions. Just two arrived, plus one message suggesting I shouldn't bother answering the first of them. Oh well, you are naturally free to send in questions whenever
Seductive Pursuits
Bite the Hand that Feeds You: Essays and Provocations by Henry Fairlie and Best Seat in the House by Frank Johnson
So Different From the Poetry
The Letters of T.S. Eliot — Volume 2: 1923-25
Spare the Thumbscrews
The Italian Inquisition by Christopher F. Black
Guide to the Perplexed
Nazi Literature in the Americas by Roberto Bolaño, translated by Chris Andrews