Leaving Out Leavis
The critic F.R. Leavis deserves better
Politics, Ideas and the Arts
Berlin Magic
Forget 'best in the world' — the Berlin Philharmonic may not even be the best orchestra in Berlin
Running Scared
With Marxism again popular among some, could North Korea soon be in vogue?
One And Only Ronnie
The playwright Ronald Harwood is deservedly acclaimed, yet has never had a play staged at the National
Outside The Box
The University of Manchester has decided to cut 171 academic posts — but it's not at all clear why
The 57th Venice Biennale
'"Another day, another cock'" might have been a better title for the 57th Venice Biennale."
Can Macron Save France — Or Is He Its Undertaker?
The youthful President inherits a broken political system and a disillusioned electorate. He has five years to rescue the Fifth Republic
The Self Is Everywhere — And Yet Nowhere
In the absence of the soul, selfhood is located in the brain. But can identity be identified?
And I Too Have Been In Anglo-Arcadia
The Durrells' Anglo-Greek love affair — and Catherine Brown's
How Self-Help Doesn’t Help Us
The self-help guru Svend Brinkmann's antidote to self-help culture
America’s First Lady Of Letters
Gertrude Himmelfarb's essays are impressively erudite and wide-ranging