Paul Johnson
A Modest Man With A Lot To Be Immodest About
Clement Attlee led an exemplary life, and was the smooth-running machine at heart of the wartime government, but was never remotely vainglorious
Sinister March Of The Tall Fellow
A new biography of Eamon de Valera, one of the most important and mysterious figures in Irish history
Margaret Thatcher Versus The Intellectuals
The first female PM faced unprecedented vitriol from snobbish cultural bureaucrats
When Francis Was Still Jorge
Cardinal Bergoglio’s road to the Vatican
The Cold Warrior Who Enjoys The Fight
Henry Kissinger was often compared to Machiavelli but Niall Ferguson shows he was, at heart, an idealist
The Greatest Man I Ever Knew?
The rich, varied, and absorbing life, and careers, of John Freeman
Giant Of The Valleys
The nobility of Nye Bevan
Is Boris a Churchill or a Lloyd George?
Boris seems to subconsciously avoid the subject of Lloyd George, though he shares more in common with him
Triumph of the Will
A new work brings into striking contrast the personalities of Stalin himself and the other members of the Soviet elite in his time
The Age of the Warrior Poet
It is a remarkable fact that WW1 produced a distinctive brand of poetry, and poets, and WW2 nothing comparable
Will the green agenda be killed off by the pandemic?
‘Will the green agenda be killed off by the longer-term coronavirus recovery? Or might the closure of so much business, and the cleaner air that results from planes not flying and factories not working, give us extra years to gain control of our environment?’
Why T.S. Eliot still matters
His contemporaries’ reputations have diminished. But Eliot’s has grown: he is the poet who shows us what can be saved from the ruins
Music’s in the house
Rappers have found a role in lockdown: chronicling coronavirus with topical tunes. Most people, though, are rushing to the safety of the past