Skip to content
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
>

Ian Birrell

Columnist & Foreign Correspondent

  • Africa
    • General
    • Algeria
    • Congo
    • Egypt
    • Equatorial Guinea
    • Eritrea
    • Ethiopia
    • Gabon
    • Ghana
    • Ivory Coast
    • Kenya
    • Liberia
    • Libya
    • Mali
    • Nigeria
    • Rwanda
    • Somalia
    • Somaliland
    • South Africa
    • South Sudan
    • Sudan
    • Swaziland
    • Tanzania
    • Tunisia
    • Uganda
    • Zambia
    • Zimbabwe
  • Aid
  • Business
    • Economics
    • Technology
  • Covid19
  • Disability
  • Europe
    • European Union
    • Albania
    • Austria
    • Belarus
    • Belgium
    • Bosnia
    • Denmark
    • Estonia
    • Finland
    • France
    • Georgia
    • Germany
    • Greece
    • Greenland
    • Holland
    • Hungary
    • Iceland
    • Ireland
    • Italy
    • Lithuania
    • Moldova
    • Norway
    • Poland
    • Russia
    • Serbia
    • Slovakia
    • Spain
    • Sweden
    • Switzerland
    • Ukraine
  • Health
  • Media
    • Arts
    • Books
    • Film
    • Music
  • Politics
  • Policy
    • Crime
    • Defence
    • Drugs
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Housing
    • Immigration
    • Police
    • Race
    • Social care
    • Sport
    • Transport
    • Welfare
    • Whitehall
  • Travel
  • World
    • Afghanistan
    • Argentina
    • Bahrain
    • Canada
    • China
    • Colombia
    • Cuba
    • Haiti
    • India
    • Iran
    • Iraq
    • Israel, West Bank & Gaza
    • Jordan
    • Kashmir
    • Kazakhstan
    • Lebanon
    • Mexico
    • Montserrat
    • Nepal
    • North Korea
    • Pakistan
    • Philippines
    • Saudi Arabia
    • South Korea
    • Sri Lanka
    • Syria
    • Taiwan
    • Turkey
    • United States
    • Venezuela
Africa / Arts / Books / Egypt / Iran / Iraq

Dreams, despair and dictators

Published by The Observer (24th August, 2015) Shifting Sands: The Unravelling of the Old Order in the Middle East (Profile) Khaled Fahmy trudged down to Tahrir Square in […]

Read More
Arts / Books / Drugs / Policy

The war on drugs is stupid and counter-productive

Published by The Spectator (16th July, 2015) Zero Zero Zero by Roberto Saviano (Allen Lane) & Dreamland: The True Story of America’s Opiate Epidemic by Sam Quinones (Bloomsbury) […]

Read More
Arts / Books / Health / Policy

Why a trick of the mind can make you blind

Published by The Daily Mail (18th June, 2015) It’s All In Your Head by Suzanne O’Sullivan (Chalto & Windus) Life was good for Camilla. She was a successful family lawyer, […]

Read More
Arts / Books

Divas who think they can’t sing

Published by The Daily Mail (15th May, 2015) Naked at the Albert Hall: The Inside Story of Singing (Virago) Dusty Springfield became a star with that smokey, sensual […]

Read More
Africa / Arts / Books

A continent trashed by treasure seekers

Published by The Observer (1st March, 2015) The Looting Machine: Warlords, tycoons, smugglers and the systematic theft of Africa’s wealth by Tom Burgis (William Collins) Augustin Katumba Mwanke […]

Read More
Africa / Arts / Books / Somalia / South Africa

One refugee’s tale of hope from misery

Published by The Observer (4th January, 2014) A Man of Good Hope by Jonny Steinberg (Jonathan Cape) Asad Abdullahi was eight years old when he awoke one day […]

Read More
Arts / Books / Europe / Germany

Living in the shadow of the Wall

Published by The Daily Mail (2nd January, 2015) Born in the GDR by Hester Vaizey (OUP Oxford) As the daughter of a Protestant vicar brought up in East […]

Read More
Arts / Books

Another first-class delivery

Published by The Daily Mail (10th October, 2014) Please, Mr Postman by Alan Johnson (Bantam) One day in June 1969, a young couple from London took the train to […]

Read More
Arts / Books / Health / Policy

Time to tackle the misery of mental illness

Published by The Observer (27th July, 2014) Thrive: The Power of Evidence-based Psychological Therapies by Richard Layard and David M Clark (Allen Lane) ‘I once broke my leg […]

Read More
Arts / Books / Politics

Farage and the fruitcakes

Published by The Observer (29th June, 2014) Protest Vote: How Politicians Lost the Plot (Gibson Square) Ten years ago, Tim Newark was shopping near his north London home […]

Read More
Africa / Aid / Arts / Books

Double standards, grateful dictators

Published by The Observer (4th May, 2014) The Tyranny of Experts: Economists, Dictators, and the Forgotten Rights of the Poor (Perseus) Last year I flew to Kenya to […]

Read More
Arts / Books / Europe

Decency defeats the forces of darkness

Published by The Mail on Sunday (6th April, 2014) Countrymen: The Untold Story of How Denmark’s Jews Escaped the Nazis by Bo Lidegaard (Atlantic) One Saturday morning in […]

Read More

Posts pagination

Previous page Page 1 … Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 … Page 7 Next page
Ian Birrell is an award-winning columnist, foreign correspondent, feature writer and investigative journalist. He is contributing editor of The Mail on Sunday, a weekly columnist in The i Paper and writes frequently for other papers and platforms. He is also co-founder with Damon Albarn of Africa Express, the acclaimed collaborative music project. (Pictured: Talking to refugees in Iraq fleeing Islamic State)... Read More.

aid autism Blair Boris Brexit Cameron China coalition Conservatives Corbyn coronavirus crime Daily Mail democracy Dfid Disability drugs EU Farage Guardian immigration Independent ipaper Labour LibDems Libya May Miliband MoS NHS Nigeria Observer Putin Russia social care Syria Times Trump Ukip Ukraine UN UnHerd USA Wuhan Xi Jinping

  • X
  • Bluesky
  • Instagram

Like what you are reading? To start or stop receiving email notifcations for new articles please enter your email address.


 

© Ian Birrell. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy. Website byAbi