If ever there were a place on earth which proves that natural conservation requires human ruthlessness, it is the small, apparently perfect Lord Howe Island, off the east coast of Australia. Lord Howe, which is run by a board of local families working with the state government, offers the world a lesson in environmental micro-management.… Continue reading To the Lord Howe rat I take off my hat
Read moreTwo of the great playwrights of their generation meet for dinner. A renowned biographer, married to one of them, records the event in her diary. “Dinner with Tom and Miriam Stoppard. Harold: ‘I don’t plan my characters’ lives.’ Then to Tom: ‘Don’t you find they take over sometimes?’ Tom: ‘No’.” Lady Antonia Fraser is about… Continue reading Portrait of the playwright as a loving husband
Read moreOne of the easiest ways for a British writer to gain cheap credibility with readers is to sneer at his fellow-countrymen. Foreigners like these acts of literary self-abuse because they make them feel smug. The English love them even more for the humiliation, so appealing to our national taste for masochism, which they provide. … Continue reading Do the British really loathe each other?
Read moreThis new form of communication expresses feelings in mini-grunts
Read moreImagine, for a moment, a Christmas TV special produced by someone who has courageously decided to break with tradition. Jeremy Paxman is in the chair and among the guests gathered for yuletide are Sir Mick Jagger, Tracey Emin, Andy Murray, Russell Brand and Lord Mandelson. A Christmas message, sent by satellite from Barbados, is contributed… Continue reading Time for TV to cut down on the Yule factor
Read moreDecember is, traditionally, a moment when those who write and review books express seasonal good cheer by puffing their friends’ latest work in the newspapers’ Christmas recommendation lists. A few take a more self-promotional approach, preferring to remind the world of their own intellectual sophistication by selecting as their book of the year an obscure,… Continue reading We must ride to the rescue of books
Read moreThere are, it seems, two categories of lying in public life. There is the personal, self-serving lie, designed to advance a career, cover up a scandal, to make some extra cash from a sloppily structured expenses system. Then there is the institutionalised lie – a wilful distortion or suppression of any evidence which is likely… Continue reading Governed by the ill wind of deception
Read moreHere is the latest news from Planet Bonkers: in order to encourage children to become involved in the 2012 Olympics, a computer simulation of running round a track is being sent to schools. The ultimate in sport for all (it is so inclusive that children will not even have to move off their obese behinds… Continue reading In cyberspace, I can hear the addicts scream
Read moreBy now the story has become such a media archetype that it almost writes itself. There is the grim housing estate, the baby-sitting session that turns into a nightmare, the traumatised aunt or grandparent, the shocked neighbours, the remorseful parents. Dog kills child. Oh dear, poor little thing. It is another grisly, depressing, predictable tale… Continue reading Protecting a country gone to the dogs needs licences help
Read moreIt has taken some time but at last Britain has come up with a symbol to represent our commitment to the environment and concern for the planet. Our version of the polar bear on a melting ice cap is to be… the tree. It is now National Tree Week and it would be churlish to… Continue reading Planting trees is a facile option
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