Tom Stevenson: Hamas: The Quest for Power by Beverley Milton-Edwards and Stephen Farrell
Jessie Childs: The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad: A True Story of Science and Sacrifice in a City under Siege by Simon Parkin
Michael Wood: At the Movies: ‘The Brutalist’
Alex de Waal: How to Measure Famine
Michael Dobson:
White People in Shakespeare: Essays in Race, Culture and the Elite edited by Arthur LittleShakespeare’s White Others by David Sterling BrownThe Great White Bard: How to Love Shakespeare while Talking about Race by Farah Karim-Cooper
Faragism and Starmerism are fronts in a global struggle between insurgent nationalism and cautious defenders of the old political order. For British democracy to triumph, the prime minister must find his voice
The press lobby is going feral—ignore it
Given the pressures of 24-hour news, lobby journalists cannot plausibly understand policy detail. Their skillset is to nose around and cause trouble
Inside the supply chain: my week on a container ship
Vessels like the Timca are the unnoticed worker ants of our global economy, bringing us the cheap food, clothes and household items we
THE PROGRESSIVE MAGAZINE (January 29, 2025): The latest issue features ‘Defending Immigrants’; The Colony Problem; Indigenous Behind Bars and Universal Basic Income….
Right now, only eight states have laws explicitly requiring safe storage for guns. If we want to save lives, we need an immediate prevention plan. Read more
The non-stop English springer is still our number one working spaniel, reveals Matthew Dennison, as he delves into this enthusiastic, energetic breed
Snake, rattle and roll
Rob Crossan investigates the deeply spiritual origins of that enduring family board-game favourite Snakes and Ladders
Heard it on the radio
The wireless broke new ground as the first form of home-based mass entertainment and is still going strong in the age of the smart speaker, finds Ben Lerwill
Friends with benefits
Nematodes are a natural way to halt the march of all manner of garden pests and Charles Quest-Ritson is a convert
Mould and behold
Josiah Wedgwood was a brilliant businessman with a remarkable social conscience. Tristram Hunt assesses his life and legacy
Catch us if you can
Owain Jones sizes up six of the best as he picks out the players to watch in this year’s Guinness Six Nations rugby extravaganza
Roger Morgan-Grenville’s favourite painting
The conservation campaigner selects a work that inspired his lifelong obsession with seabirds
A Palladian premonition
Richard Hewlings offers a fresh analysis of the architecture at Bramham Park, a highly original West Yorkshire country house
The legacy
Kate Green remembers Robert FitzRoy, the founder of the Met Office whose name lives on in the BBC’s Shipping Forecast
Dear country diary
Paul Fleckney flicks through The Guardian’s Country Diary, which has offered a snapshot of rural life for more than 120 years
Interiors
The best stoves and fireplaces picked by Amelia Thorpe, plus the alternatives to burning logs
Luxury
Hetty Lintell’s top timepieces and James Haskell’s favourite things
Magnificent mahonias
Charles Quest-Ritson makes the case for mahonias, arguing that their pleasantly scented flowers are a seasonal delight
Kitchen garden cook
Melanie Johnson pairs peppery horseradish with salmon fillets
Ring-dove beauteous!
John Lewis-Stempel coos over the much-maligned wood pigeon, that canny, keen-eyed and fast-flying stalwart of our countryside
News, Views and Reviews For The Intellectually Curious