‘We are told that “we’re in this together” by people who can afford to wait out the epidemic in the way the aristocrats of old retreated to their estates when the plague arrived in the city. It is more accurate to say that we are, as this edition’s cover puts it, “together, alone”.’
$1,200 isn’t going to stretch very far for workers who have lost their jobs, or even for those still employed
From the Magazine
It is a cherished axiom of the psychological class that the human psyche is almost infinitely sensitive and delicate
From the Magazine
An unwanted shoulder rub is a bit sleazy but it hardly places a man beyond redemption
By Amber Duke
From the Magazine
What I respected about the people in Baidoa was that every famine victim who died was an individual
From the Magazine
I hoped my flight would be canceled but we left right on time
By William Cook
From the Magazine
The conspiracy theory right is addicted to crazy ideas about a drug
By Ben Sixsmith
From the Magazine
By and large, the world’s most powerful and most expensive military establishment is not proving terribly relevant
From the Magazine
What will be the fatality rate of our insane overreaction?
From the Magazine
The British have bought the lockdown hook, line and non-thinker
From the Magazine
The Trump administration’s $1,200 subvention to citizens is a drop in the swelling ocean of debt
From the Magazine
History shows plagues are bad for big empires with weak frontiers: ask the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius
From the Magazine
Books + Arts
The director’s new work, The Personal History of David Copperfield, is certainly brave
By Will Lloyd
From the Magazine
Marjane Satrapi, the author-director of Persepolis, tells Sarah Ditum about her Marie Curie biopic, exile from Iran and fears for the future of democracy
By Sarah Ditum
From the Magazine
If it were not for the terrors surrounding us, this is the life I’ve always wanted — social distancing without social disapproval
By Tom Stoppard
From the Magazine
From Here to There: The Art and Science of Finding and Losing Our Way by Michael Bond reviewed
By Sara Wheeler
From the Magazine
The Mathematics of the Gods and the Algorithms of Men: A Cultural History by Paolo Zellini reviewed
From the Magazine
The Bilingual Brain: And What It Tells Us About the Language of Science by
From the Magazine
My Sam Peckinpah lockdown bender
From the Magazine
After Fault Lines, his acclaimed family history, David Pryce-Jones has written another kind of autobiography: Signatures, the memoirs of a bibliophile
From the Magazine
He is perhaps a little too fond of drugs and weaponry, but he has also overcome great personal misfortune
From the Magazine
Life
As we all sat in the waiting room, we wondered what social enormity the doctor might commit next
From the Magazine
‘You can go to Hell, but I am going to Texas,’ said Davy Crockett. I think he had a point
From the Magazine
Living dangerously helps put death in the right perspective
By Taki
From the Magazine
In Lavenham, American history is unlocked by a pint of fine English ale
From the Magazine
Why am I so hungry? Oh because it’s noon and I’ve been on Twitter for four hours
From the Magazine
Life in the age of COVID-19 is connected but unconnected
By Sam Leith
From the Magazine
‘Housewife’ meaning ‘woman in charge of a household’ was also sometimes pronounced ‘husif’. By the 16th century it was worn down to ‘hussy’
From the Magazine
Food and Drink
According to French tradition, it is wrong to throw away old bread because it is sacred
By Jane Stannus
From the Magazine
Alison Roman’s tastes are like my father’s: particular, strident and requiring a capacious definition of the word ‘unfussy’
From the Magazine
I have some good advice about some things you might want to drink after you have gathered with one or two appropriate friends
From the Magazine