The dramatic departure from office of the Scottish Catholic Cardinal Keith O"Brien, amid allegations of sexual misconduct and gross hypocrisy, has all the ingredients of a potboiler play"lurid plot, supposed sexual shenanigans, political intrigue, impossibly dastardly authorities, ...
On February 4th, the University of Leicester announced that the bones unearthed last August beneath a former parking lot in Leicester really were what had been hoped"the remains of King Richard III"and the audience of journalists burst into spontaneous applause. A 527-year-old mystery had ...
Cooper, Artemis. Patrick Leigh Fermor: An Adventure. London: John Murray, 2010. On December 9th, 1933, an eighteen-year-old miscreant rushed through the rain at Tower Bridge to catch the Stadtholder Willem, about to hoist anchor and leave for Rotterdam. His luggage was light"a little money, a ...
A venerable British political tradition dictates that whenever some important matter arises, the government commissions an inquiry chaired by a renowned expert. This expert duly conducts a thorough investigation"which sometimes takes years"at great public expense, eventually producing a ...
In July 2011, in response to public anger at a few tabloid journalists" illegal activities, David Cameron reluctantly announced the Leveson Inquiry into the specific allegations and the "culture, practices and ethics of the press." Sixteen months of media navel-gazing, 650 witnesses, ...
On New Year's Day 1964, a louche, longhaired Leeds lad presented the first edition of the BBC's Top of the Pops from inside a converted Manchester church. Featured acts included The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Dusty Springfield. The Leeds lad would later claim it was the dawn of the ...
Judith Schalansky. Pocket Atlas of Remote Islands"Fifty Islands I Have Not Visited and Never Will. London, New York: Penguin, 2012. 240 pp. The West is writing over all the world's white spaces. The unrolling triumph of occidental enlightenment and exploration has meant the near-complete ...
When Scotland and England were united formally in 1707, the Scottish Earl of Seafield remarked in smug satisfaction, "There's the end of an auld sang." But if the Scottish National Party has its way, soon there may be a new song and a new chapter in the auld ongoing saga of these connected, ...
After four days of royalist reverie, the imported Union Jacks are starting to sag"drooping disconsolately as the proud people who "never ever shall be slaves" shake their heads free of the spell. There will not be another Diamond Jubilee in our lifetimes"and an 86-year-old woman has ...
While British troops gallantly and pointlessly put themselves in peril's way in Afghanistan, Iraq, and soon perhaps elsewhere, they must find great comfort knowing that back in Blighty, Abu Qatada (AKA "Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe") is settling into a nice new home thanks to ...
