April 2019

“Whoever could make two ears of corn or two blades of grass to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more

Nearly 40 years ago, when my wife and I were in a bookshop in Paris, she bought La Source Grecque by Simone Weil. As a mathematician, I knew nothing of the author

“There’s not much more to say on the subject,” says brittle Robert in Harold Pinter’s Betrayal — an acceptance that the moral complexities of adultery are as old as Zeus. Yet more

The restoration of great works of art is increasingly being carried out in public before an admiring audience

“Oy veh iz mir.” This is the cry of the diaspora Jew from Newcastle to New Jersey. “Nu?” Now what? Oy for the sadness, the salt tears, the tears of laughter, the

Few of even the greatest writers have managed to capture the emotional, elusive, essence of music

One picks up a book written by a former leading Liberal Democrat about a conspiracy theory with a certain amount of wariness. Many will have hoped to have forgotten The Strange Death

As the Brexit deadlock in Parliament drags on and on, some important voices are missing: those of the politicians who got us here in the first place. Where are Tony Blair, Gordon

Brexit has seen a number of parliamentary firsts, including the passage of the EU Withdrawal Act — a new law to force the Government to ask for an extension to the Article

Some years ago I wrote a novel called A Very British Coup, which was later made into a successful television series. It presupposed the election of a left-wing Prime Minister, Harry Perkins,