Published in The Observer (April 22, 2012) The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt (Penguin) When Barack Obama won the […]
Arts / Books / Nigeria
Disorder, dereliction…and decency
Published in The Observer (January 29th, 2012) Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria by Noo Saro-Wira (Granta) Nigeria does not top many people’s lists of the ideal holiday […]
Arts / Books
Fancy footwork with the facts
Published in The Observer (January 15th, 2012) Why It’s Kicking Off Everywhere: The New Global Revolutions by Paul Mason (Verso) One of the best things about Newsnight in recent months […]
Arts / Books
Well, that’s easy for you to say, Mr President…
Published in The Observer (October 16th, 2011) You Talkin’ to Me? Rhetoric from Aristotle to Obama by Sam Leith (Profile) As the Barack Obama bandwagon began to roll […]
Afghanistan / Arts / Books / World
The day that shook the world
Published in The Observer (September 11th, 2011) The Eleventh Day by Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan (Doubleday); The 9/11 Wars by Jason Burke (Allen Lane); Granta 116: Ten […]
Arts / Books / United States / World
The other Barack: Bigamist, drunk and wife-beater
Published in the Daily Mail (August 12th, 2011) The Other Barack by Sally H. Jacobs (Public Affairs) Shortly after being elected first black president of Harvard Law Review, […]
Arts / Books
After the wave, the emotional deluge
Published in The Observer (July 31st, 2011) Let Not the Waves of the Sea by Simon Stephenson (John Murray) On what would have been his brother’s 28th birthday, […]
Afghanistan / Arts / Books / World
It’s a fiasco, says our man in Kabul
Published in the Daily Mail (July 1st, 2011) Cables from Kabul: The Inside story of the West’s Afghanistan campaign by Sherard Cowper-Coles (Harper Press) Two years ago, during […]
Arts / Books
Hell or high water
Published in The Spectator (January 24th, 2011) Unbroken: An extraordinary true story of courage and survival by air, sea and land by Laura Hillenbrand (4th Estate) As his […]
Arts / Books / Politics
The making of the coalition
Published in The Spectator (December 4th, 2010) 22 Days in May by David Laws/5 Days to Power by Rob Wilson (both Biteback) David Cameron was despondent on the […]
Arts / Books
That turbulent decade
Published in The Spectator (October 23rd, 2010) No such thing as society: a history of Britain in the 1980’s by Andy McSmith (Constable) On 2 January, 1980, a […]
Arts / Books / Kashmir
Caught in the crossfire
Published in The Spectator (July 24th, 2010) Curfewed Night by Basharat Peer (Harper Press) Maqbool Sheikh dreaded hearing a knock at the door of his home. For he […]