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The death of Prince is shocking because he seemed ageless
His songs dealt in fantasy, and fantasy is supposed to be a matter of forever. Prince once said that if you didn’t acknowledge your birthday, you’d never age. And he never seemed to – at least, not so...
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Why tackling poor literacy helps everyone, from city councils to CEOs
Recent statistics suggest almost 6 million adults in the UK have low levels of literacy. But I'm optimistic for change – after all, who wouldn't want to harness all that potential talent? I’ve run out...
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Ideas are free, but writing is expensive: how can we ensure disadvantaged...
If you’re a writer of any shade or background, the chances of success are slim. Factor in any kind of disadvantage and you begin to think it’s impossible. At my grammar school, we read Dickens and...
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400 years after Shakespeare's death, can Labour ever win in Stratford?
If Middle England exists, then the town of William Shakespeare has a good claim to represent it. Stratford-upon-Avon is best known for being where William Shakespeare was born and died 400 years ago...
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The Brexit brigade are mishandling Barack Obama's visit - but that helps...
If the referendum looks like a foregone conclusion for Remain, it boosts the chances of a British exit. As Sam Elliott observes in The Big Lebowski, sometimes you eat the bar, and sometimes the bar...
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Part-American Boris Johnson attacks “part-Kenyan” Barack Obama’s “ancestral...
More foghorn than dogwhistle. Just when you were about to forgive the Tories for being quaintly old-school in their racism renaissance, Boris Johnson has barged in with more of a foghorn than a...
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The latest sign of gentrification? Commissioning graffiti for McDonalds
Brixton is currently at number one on the gentrification hit list, and so on go the tags – covering everything from the tables to the lampshades. The writer Chris Hall, that redoubtable Ballardian...
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Cycling may be good for you but I’m still terrified all my friends are going...
There’s a quiet sadness to being a bike-hating dyke. I’ve never even cycled on a main road and, if I had to, I’d do it with strips of mattress duct taped to my limbs. When I was six, my brother, then...
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The time to act on climate change is now
Climate change is an existential threat, warns Baroness Scotland. Imagine water crashing into your bedroom in the dead of night, dragging you from your bed and into its cold, murky depths. Imagine...
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If we want to empower women, we should encourage them to write more about sex
Being able to articulate our desires is key to our wellbeing – but if we want to be sex-literate, we need more inventive writing than Fifty Shades of Grey. In the UK, according to the association for...
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Barack Obama delivers a hammerblow to the Brexiters
The US president demolished the Leave campaign's economic boasts as he warned the UK would go to "the back of the queue" for trade deals. For years, opponents of the EU have boasted of how the UK...
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Jezza’s speeches, submarines in Derby – and why I got banned from Corbyn: the...
Don’t worry,” he said, “those Tory-boy writers have already had to chop it down from two hours 30 minutes because of the rambling storyline.” I’ve never been banned from a musical before but I’ve...
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Bribes, brothers and books on the road: how I learnt to love reading
Sometimes, it takes a surprising turn of events – or even the promise of a reward – to start someone off reading. Anna Leszkiewicz on learning to read the words meant for her brother As a young child,...
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Trust the tinkerman: the fall and rise of Claudio Ranieri
The Leicester City manager’s sharp tactical brain has emerged from behind the quirks and the cashmere.*/ As gulls circled overhead, the away fans bounced in elation. Even the home fans applauded. On...
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Spoilt for choice, like a kid in a candy store
Where the French concentrate on home-grown elixirs, London offers wines from all over the world. The child among the sweetie jars, agonising between cola bottles, sherbet and gobstoppers, still...
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Compassion and caution must both be at the heart of our response to the...
It is only fair that if one asks the government to do more, we should acknowledge when it does so. The Syrian conflict moves at a frightening pace. The families caught up in the maelstrom that follows...
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“Schrödinger’s Cab”: a poem by Steve Kronen
“You won’t be sure of its arrival / until it rolls up to your curb”*/ They did not dare take a taxi to the station for fear their departure might be reported to the authorities....
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Dublin’s blood: on the founding fathers of the Irish Republic
A group portrait of the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland reviewed. Writing in these pages in July 1913, George Bernard Shaw noted, with some concern, that the world seemed to have made up...
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Why YouTube mums are taking their kids offline
You never know who's watching: Amelia Tait talks to the vlogger mums fleeing online paedophilia. When Allison Irons uploaded a YouTube video of her newborn baby wearing a reusable nappy, she knew...
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After 1966 we ignored foreign football. Didn’t do us no harm. Except it did
After England’s Wembley victory on Saturday 30 July 1966, I was convinced that was it. I am looking forward this summer to all the celebrations, supplements, street parties and World Cup Willie...
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