Sitemap - 2022 - This Week, Those Books
Oxleas Woods hark back to an England that wasn't England when it first existed
Christmas should be cancelled in December and moved to February 7
Make a new ritual this holiday season
The poinsettia is soprano in the season's grand opera
What do FDR's Four Freedoms mean today?
‘In Bogota even the bootblacks quoted Proust’
Working the Santa shift at 35,000 feet
In the US and UK, the left re-jigs the scaffolding of words
A sack of coal would have more chance of getting somewhere in UK than a human being
America's Democrats start to reclaim the patriotism and freedom frame
Is the Africa-America axis really made real in Washington, DC?
All that loving for Africa…in the US, in the World Cup
Britain's culture clash has gone from Brexit wars to Megxit skirmishes
Word from Downing Street: All's well except 'the country falling apart'
Unlike the UK, the US made sure slow-motion disaster of train strike wouldn't happen
Britain's train service is stuck on a track that leads nowhere
'42 per cent of Africa's 130 players at Qatar were born outside the continent'
Footballers often ask themselves: Where am I really from?
Decolonisation of the mind: Lessons from 21st century Britain
Per Shakespeare, the Welsh leek has long had a good press
Prometheus unbound & Peter Thiel
Britain's three 'Ds': Deindustrialisation, degrowth, denigration of outsiders
There are some very real symptoms of Britain's slow slide downwards
Britain's failing ARC, the Aid and Reconstruction Complex
Could the Chinese protests be telling a hitherto unregarded story
Putin's naglost on Ukraine is a feature, not a bug
European think tanks and their BIG plans
An issue that won't age well - boomers and beyond in the US and UK
UN's impotence on Ukraine underlines the need for real decolonisation
Betting on World Cup wins and woes
Why FIFA chief is right about Qatar’s critics
An election win for Melania Trump…in Slovenia?
Gianni Infantino and performance theatre…of otherness
‘Sportswashing’ goes much beyond Qatar. What about Trump and the Saudis?
A World Cup that runneth over woefully mean…and size-ist
Since 2010, the sustained criticism has basically attacked Qatar for being Qatar
Ready for Rishi's report card? Reassuringly boring
How credible will Rishi Sunak's Britain be at the G20 in Bali?
Britain's new son-shine sector: the Rishi trivia cottage industry
The things people know - and don't know - about Britain's 'Rishi Rich'
Trumpty Dumpty and DeFuture: Fellowship of the ring
The Ukraine war needs diplomacy not daredevil talk
America calling: The Ukraine war needs diplomacy not daredevil talk
America's scary times don't end with Halloween
Britain's asylum situation doesn't have to continue as a 'crisis'
Britain and Belgium: Asylum crises as Albania slams the UK 'madhouse'
Suella Braverman's colour-coded stance…all red, white and blue
Matthew Syed's book on agreeing to disagree kindly, confidently should be on the curriculum
The harm Brexit & its opportunistic cheerleaders have done will be felt for years
Rishi Sunak is no Davos man so why not speak truth to the power of Brexit?
Tumult in paradise? St. Kitts and Nevis, one of Britain's 'realms', plans ahead
Remember Liz Truss? She may do rather well out of the mess she got Britain into
Is anybody, particularly Rishi Sunak, ready for his first 100 days?
Rishi, priest, prescient prime minister, someone very wise from the east?
Expertise trumps ethnicity as eco crisis looms: This time, only MPs, not full party, chose Sunak
Odd that Suella Braverman, one of Britain's two Cruella de Vil figures, backed Rishi Sunak
Liz Truss and that 'Cairo taxi': Britain still unbeatable as a comedy superpower
Liz tried to be Thatcher in 2022 and failed miserably
Poor Liz Truss and her pathetic economic policies
'The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida' has a place on the decolonised bookshelf
Britain’s new Carolean age is beset by the unfinished business of history
Is Liz Truss really a symbol of Western democratic resilience as China crowns Xi?
A question of Truss and Rees-Mogg reality
The perils of KamiKwasi theories
Liz Truss and the best of British robotic libertarianism
Liz Truss puts Britain on course to an uncivil war
The planned Saudi linear city revives a 19th century idea
Truss and Kwarteng's Britain: The meshing of emerging economy politics and economics
The markets know what Librium Liz and Kamikwasi don't - Britain is not America
Liz Truss's unoriginal, unedifying and outdated plan for 'Growth. Growth. Growth'
What Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng think of Indian children
Librium Liz and Kamikwasi's Britain: 'You have to laugh or you'll cry'
Time for a British version of Andy Borowitz's 'Profiles in Ignorance'?
'It's not hard to be a political humorist when you have the whole government working for you'
How to write (and illustrate stories) about 'Africans'
'Librium Liz' has been doing a good job of sending herself up
Kamikwasi, Librium Liz and the great British joke factory
Why the United Nations has been reduced to a technical support role
Italy's new PM busts a myth about 'caring' women leaders
Back to the other Liz's world. Shtum, imperious, foxy
Ken Starr and the cult of the whiskey priest
Pay attention to Ken Starr's passing. He was a prototype for Maugham's 'whiskey priest'
How and why Britain's greatest inventions of royal ritual and pageantry came about
That bagpipe-playing man in a tartan kilt isn't all he's cracked up to be
Britain's invented traditions include much royal ritual and Highland dress
America's record on Haiti and Biden's right to be at the Queen's funeral - II
America's record on Haiti: Should Biden be on that good-to-go list for Queen's funeral?
In Britain, emotion runs high and pound falls to 37-year low
'Off with their heads': The queenly Liz Truss
…and in The Philippines, a new quasi-royal tradition
Britain routinely invents authentically antique-effect royal traditions
'Royal Family', the 1969 documentary you aren't meant to see, has some real gems
'There is no escape from history' for Britain, its new king and the rest of us
What stiff upper lip? Queen's death had London black cab drivers weeping
Queen Elizabeth had a Merchant Ivory-standard, Raj-era Britishness
Diversity or tokenism? How to view Liz Truss's cabinet?
Is the Truss cabinet's visual diversity any more than just that?
How harissa, turban-shaped salt cellar and a matka can evoke a whole culture
Cultural resonance in three airline meal trays
Climate action is now officially on India's mind
'Narendra Modi's political good fortune'
India's experiment in financial inclusion is paying off
Nizamuddin is in the here and now
The real meaning of 'Oṃ maṇi padme hūṃ' in the public space in BJP-ruled India
'Chinjabi' chow mein and other Delhi delicacies
Dehradun Airport and art as a reflection of the spirit of its time
What this dargah in Landour, high up in the Garhwal Himalayas, says about Modi's India
Cloud walking: Landour in August
The plainsfolk who drive commerce in hilly Landour
India at 75: The hill station spirit lives on
'Ukraine fatigue'? A Ukrainian mother-and-daughter story from London
In Britain, a fear of the status futurus. In India, a hope that will not be denied
Back to black: What Afghanistan’s new focus on coal tells us
The 'new world' label is 600 years old and needs updating
India and Afghanistan now share an 'independence day'
Take Roald Dahl as a tonic rather than a terrible template
Salman Rushdie, the man who told stories about India
At 75, India and Pakistan look more and more like each other
The last white woman, Liz Truss
Afghanistan, one year after the Taliban's reconquest
Hazara diaspora asks the world to spare a thought
One year on, America is supposedly moving on from Afghanistan
Afghanistan's new golden age of coal mines
Back to the future in Afghanistan?
America's 20-year engagement with Afghanistan
America's contradictions in three events on just one day
America's resurrection and Dr Zawahiri's multiple deaths
'Nervous Conditions' is about the lot of women…and more
'The Joys of Motherhood' and the women's fiction shelf
Two great examples of 'women's fiction' show the need to level up literature
Women leaders and wholesome politics
'Tunisia is a country trapped in a slogan'
A woman in charge allows a country to breathe mindfully?
Tunisia, a country trapped in a slogan
What links Tunisia's constitutional referendum and Brexit? Both sell a big lie
Shame and glory of success in the old imperial power: Rishi Sunak…Mohamed Sarr
Poor little rich 'underdog' Rishi and the U factor
January 6: America's 'feast of the goat'?
Could Sri Lanka's Rajapaksas return, like the Marcos family?
Britain's 'broken' democracy Vs Sri Lanka's system
As with Mexico 1994, Sri Lanka needs a Nafta-like benefactor
As Sri Lanka has shown, the world economy is in for a Micawberesque period
Why did Penny Mordaunt use the word 'colour' in her campaign video?
British wannabe-PMs' live debate is minus the real stuff
Should Tunisia be following the French model of doing business?
Sri Lanka's protesters are demanding change: here's why
Parallels between 'Britain Trump' and the real American thing are overstated
Buxton Tories speak their minds about MPs who want to reverse the order and be PM
Obama had it right: There is American exceptionalism, Greek exceptionalism...
Boris bluster can't keep Brexit Britain's reality hidden
Boris remade Britain's image as a mussy-haired wannabe with a slippery sense of propriety
'Them's the breaks': Boris adopts an American accent
Comparing the US and Iran causes a small storm in a tiny teacup
Vanuatu: life in the world's most climate-endangered country
In Iran, one man exercises complete control for his lifetime. In the US, it's now six people
The US system is superior to Iran. Discuss
The US and Iran: spot the difference
The span of several centuries separates Justice Alito from the Taliban leader
Two men, one idea: A theological dystopia
Colombia's Petro and the poetry and prose of political change
Women's lib and freedom from Le Corbusier's Modulor scale
The G7 has returned to being a gentlemen's club
The Commonwealth prides itself on the post-colonial dividend
Commonwealth signals that it's not a club of ex-British colonials
Our man in Kigali (and Gitega)
Colombia and Latin America's quickening political pulse
A peaceful transfer of power in America? Yes, but…
When it comes to hurling insults, Moscow is not a patch on Pyongyang
Pritchett and 'brassy' London summers from Victoria to Elizabeth II
London's 'brassy summer' is like a Pritchett short story
Google's LaMDA vs Ishiguro's Klara
Paris emphatically did not have politics on its mind
Enforced ways to neither 'phub' nor be 'phubbed'
Fair-skinned or not, colonisation is a mentality
Ukraine: Norman Foster, 'colonisation' and rebuilding Kharkiv
These facts and figures are royal treats…in a manner of speaking
The third-generation man from York who feels unable to describe himself as 'British'
'It's possible to admire the Queen without envying her'
Platinum Jubilee and the 'pong of Pyongyang'
The British monarchy…warts and all
Ever wondered how the monarchy survives?
Not a Queenfest…the word 'Queen' is associated with something quite different
Stasis, cuke sandwiches…and more on the menu, this royal jubilee
70 years into the second Elizabethan age…
'Anyone with an IQ higher than a mango's can pass safety class'
From Columbine High to Robb Elementary School
America used to care about national security…its own
How is Hungary's 'great replacement' pushback going?
Orban's theories and practices on 'the great replacement'
The US right's response to Orban's playbook
Orban's message to the US right: Do as I do
Nature and Ukraine make Davos far from business as usual
Bipolar: Orban speaks to the state of the world
The visible effects of Ukraine's powerful currency - soft power
A woman of substance: the unconventional Alice de Rothschild
A sneaky birthday treat, filched from Axios
'Like all traditions, birthday parties had to be invented'
Ukraine and the incredible force of soft power
The Ides of May and Lebanon's no-change election
Kyiv is western politicians' new Mecca
Time running out to save Sri Lanka from economic collapse
The world in four elections: the Ides of May and the Philippines
What you need to know about Solomon Islands
A Mandela hotel, Gandhi cushion, Diana tat
Dip into the sabra hummus story
The high point of the 'Hummus Wars' was probably its lowest
Europe not an issue in the UK elections
Britain's local elections have national significance
The hummus hostilities are at a stalemate…for now
No, decolonising your bookshelf doesn’t mean getting rid of Jane Austen
Borscht, a Ukrainian hug in a mug
What borscht means to Ukraine at this moment
Say cheese. It's ripe for robbing
The PLO's situation is darker but that doesn't represent Palestinian prospects
Arafat and Palestinian exceptionalism
Arafat's PLO and the high point of Palestinian distinctiveness
The PLO broadens, deepens and becomes truly representative
Myanmar and the attempted resurrection
The Rohingyas, like India's Muslims, seem to be a second-string hard luck cause
The West looks carefully away from the situation of Muslims in India
The West suffers selective myopia and amnesia over India's Muslims
The West sheds still more crocodile tears for Xinjiang
Gagarin very nearly didn't become the first man to successfully return from space
61 years ago, Gagarin became the first man in space. It's still worth celebrating
What's with Nestle's move to do the right thing on child labour?
Nestle and the business of morality
How the UN's Ruggie Principles set corporate responsibility
'If Ukraine war grinds on, businesses should study UN's Ruggie Principles'
Corporate moralism on Russia: Suspended between pragmatism and principle
Corporate moral philosophy on Russia: Is there such a thing?
South Asia is mostly bad news…and then there's Afghanistan
Ukraine showed there are things worse than American power: Russian power
Myanmar artist Sai reveals junta's horrors
Not whiffs of Munich but a European security plan that smells good?
Realism about Russia, great powers and greater self-interest
A telling story about Putin's state of mind from a European diplomat, formerly in Moscow
Return of the international brigades
COVID victims: In death as in life, the poor remain unseen
Capitalism focusses on free markets rather than free societies
Nasser and post-Nakba Palestinian nationalism
Nakba: what the catastrophe meant for Palestinian political development
Palestine and the two types of nationalism
What is a country if it's not a nation?
Countries, nations and states. Where does Palestine fit in?
Is Ukraine really an ancient state and what is a country if it's not a nation?
Marina Lewycka on the ambiguities of being Ukrainian
A novel on tractors in Ukrainian is about anything but
What links the UK's DIY-asylum system and that novel about 'tractors in Ukrainian'?
Britain's DIY-asylum for Ukrainian refugees has potential…and perils
What can China do about Ukraine and will it do it?
Why parse world's reaction? To get the truth, not what you wish were the truth
Russia has undoubtedly won friends and influenced people in Africa
Breaking down the 'world' reaction to Putin's war
Ukraine as a worthy cause? Parsing the 'world's' reaction
Two views of the nuclear threat and 'the end times'
Three recent conversations about Putin and 'the end times'
Human beings think and feel, which is as it should be
The world is too much with us. How not to deal with it
Can you become a refugee…from the world?
Ukraine puts ESG investors in the spotlight for a slew of Russian JVs
Ukraine has spurred companies to walk the ESG talk…mostly
The best laid plans of mice and men…and Putin and his gold
Return of the international brigades
Russian boardrooms are hit by a moral wave of resignations
Making Russia greater than ever by hook or by nuke?
Europe's 'almost-consensus' moment on Russia speaks volumes
Kuwait got it; will Ukraine? (Hint: international help)
Royal finances - our money is theirs and vice versa
Royal finances - our money and theirs
Perhaps the Queen could let it be known she's selling a Canaletto to pay Andrew's bills?
'Ukraine is like Afghanistan; Russians are the Taliban'
Gen Z and the business of being woke
That 'whiff of Munich' in the air?
Abbasid Baghdad's shock-and-awe diplomacy
Finlandisation and Danish pastry
Obituaries are a serious business…but that doesn't mean they're sad
Obituaries have a life of their own
The pandemic has made life harder for obituary writers
Queen Elizabeth's long goodbye
A new age dawns for the classical coup?
Xi and Putin grin and bare it and grin and bear it
Russia, Ukraine, Schrodinger's cat and our interconnected world
Javier Cercas on Spain's battles with memory
Memory and forgetting for a country
Almodovar's new film and how to remember
At school in India, we learnt to honour 'Netaji' Bose, not to imitate him
Looking for 'Mein Kampf' in London and Delhi
'All the world's somewhat corrupt and men and women merely players'
Beware the rich, de-dollarised Russian bear
Some surprising actors want the Yankees in their backyard
Market fundamentalism is over, more or less, but what's taken its place?
Living with - or without - Covid
The 246-year-old experiment that is democracy in America
Gaelige and Brussels' Tower of Babel
Reports that America is over may be greatly exaggerated
Elif Shafak is right: Social media platforms are the 21st century's Colosseum
Are the unvaccinated becoming modern-day lepers?
Vaccine apartheid is the wrong term
Escaping the shadow of the Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher
Ben Ali's phone calls illustrate the lesson of history
Trump's alternate reality fits with a metaverse that doesn't exist
Never heard of Tonga? Well, everyone has now
A thousand-and-one uses for a bricked Blackberry?
What a drag it is getting old'
The problem with hybrid speech-text communication
Turning the unvaccinated into modern-day lepers?
Imagine Tocqueville emerging from the Wayback Machine
Birthdays big and small: Kate and Kim
Three things to watch, just days into the new year
Pepper soup and positive thinking
The world in 2022: more of the same?
How will Taliban 2.0 interpret Sharia law in Afghanistan?
'The original military-industrial complex'
Amsterdam, capital of sustainable capitalism?
21st century Britain: still the 'emancipated empire'?