Prescribed Reading
Book review of You Can’t Read this Book by Nick Cohen
Politics, Ideas and the Arts
Rich Man, Poor Man, Beggars Both
Book reviews of Joseph Roth: A Life in Letters translated & edited by Michael Hofmann and Three Lives, a Biography of Stefan Zweig by Oliver Matuschek, translated by Allan Blunden
The Precision Portraitist
Johan Zoffany’s art enjoyed only a brief vogue, but the RA’s show displays all his technical brilliance
Stalin’s Retreat
British leaders should apply the lesson of Churchill's firm resistance to a belligerent Stalin when dealing with the Kremlin
No More Shrinking
There are many reasons for a dearth of women in the upper echelons of the media, but female writers first have to toughen up
An Insult to Ike
Frank Gehry's $100 million memorial to Dwight Eisenhower isn't just an ugly monstrosity, but a gargantuan folly funded by the taxpayer
Obama v Madison
Obama's edict that religious organisations must contribute to birth control has wantonly undermined the sanctity of religious conscience
Margate Rendezvous
For J.M.W. Turner it wasn't only the beauty of the Kentish coast that attracted him, but also that of a buxom hotelier
Native Tongue-tied
Learning a foreign tongue opens up an entirely new spectrum of cultural rewards, yet state schools are failing to emphasise their importance
Chance Really Is A Fine Thing
Without random events the laws of physics could not operate
Rook of Gibraltar
In a sport over-populated with men, 17-year-old Chinese wunderkind Hou Yifan's sheer focus establishes her as a contender to be reckoned with
Kosher Craze
‘Their grandparents fled the Nazis, their parents boycotted all things German, but their children are flocking to Berlin’