Will Self on motor-mania. Read more
now playing
Car Hatred
Will Self on motor-mania.
The Eve of Destruction
Sarah Dunant reflects on political will and its relationship to changing behaviour.
The Child Question
Zoe Strimpel on the binary choice of motherhood.
Annoying
AL Kennedy on why everything these days is... annoying.
More Questions Than Answers
Tom Shakespeare on University Challenge and a starter for ten.
But Does it Matterhorn?
Sara Wheeler reflects on why place names matter.
I Read the News Today, Oh Boy
Sarah Dunant discusses living on a cusp of history.
A Sense of Home
Will Self on our fetishisation of property.
The Sea at Christmas
Howard Jacobson stares out to sea....and ponders the 'mysterious nexus of sea and Santa'.
On lost souls... and mobile phones
Adam Gopnik on the quest for lost souls.
On Rapid Home Delivery
Zoe Strimpel reflects on the impact of rapid home delivery on the way we live our lives.
Etonian Lives Matter... but not as much as they used to.
David Goodhart rejects what he calls the 'Eton conspiracy myth'.
The Right Side of History
Sarah Dunant asks if we should judge the past by the standards of the present - or future.
Leaving the Ivory Tower
As she leaves academia, Rebecca Stott says an audit culture is stifling universities.
Misopedia
Will Self deplores the British attitude to children, mixing sentimentality with cruelty
Selective Vision
Sara Wheeler reflects on the harm done by seeing only from our own point of view.
An Ecological Reparation
John Connell on planting trees on his family farm as reparation for years of flying.
It's Not Their War
Sara Wheeler says that the attack on Ukraine is not the war of Russians she has known.
Return of the Bomb
Will Self argues that the threat of a nuclear apocalypse has never really gone away.
There Are No Words
Rebecca Stott on conversations with her Russian friend.
Every Picture Tells a Story
Sarah Dunant on the power of images in war.
Tolstoy in Our Time
Adam Gopnik seeks enlightenment for our time in Tolstoy's War and Peace.
Helpless
A L Kennedy reflects on a 1950s experiment in inducing despair.
A View From Russia: All I Have To Say
The everyday repression of life in Russia, as seen by an anonymous dissident playwright.
What is a Woman?
Zoe Strimpel asks the simple-yet-complex question, 'what is a woman?'
The Unlistened-to Story
Howard Jacobson on why stories of truth in war cannot be ignored.
Reconsidering Cannabis and the Law
Will Self proposes a very British solution to the legalisation of marijuana.
Basic Instincts in the House of Commons
Sarah Dunant takes the temperature of sexual equality in politics.
The War with Words
Bernardine Evaristo on news that Girl, Woman, Other may be banned in some US schools.
Home from Home
Michael Morpurgo calls for a rethink on how we deal with refugees.
On Rubble
Rebecca Stott imagines a day when Kharkiv and other Ukrainian cities can be rebuilt.
