Andy Burnham will walk into No 10 on 20 July to a bulging in-tray of policies, proposals – and problems. One he may be less aware of is a ticking political timebomb launched by David Lammy in his role as justice secretary, which could affect millions of people who have chosen not to marry. Under…
Recently I was delighted to come across a new book about Henry David Thoreau, Thoreau’s God, by Richard Higgins from the University of Chicago Press. It rekindled the initial thrill of encountering Walden (subtitled Life in the Woods) as an undergraduate English major. I fantasized about living in mid-19th century Massachusetts with Thoreau and other luminaries of American…
In May 1977, Talking Heads along with Ramones toured the UK starting at Eric’s Club in Liverpool. Did touring as punk exploded have an impact on you? SpiritofWackerThere was something really great about that tour because other than maybe a few singles the audience had never seen us, so there was a lot of curiosity…
After my adoptive father died in November last year, my adoptive siblings found a short story by Enid Blyton among his possessions. The Child Who Was Chosen was read to us as children to explain the circumstances of my adoption. It follows a nice middle-class couple whose domestic bliss is marred by childlessness, prompting them…
It is always an emotional blow to see former US president Barack Obama pop up on one’s screen. The Instagram algorithm sends me a lot of him, because it knows I always click on him being charming with babies, statesmanlike in speeches, cool at rallies, articulate and witty at anything, endlessly composed, compassionate, intelligent, handsome,…
President Donald Trump headed to Camp David on Friday for a weekend of policy and political meetings as negotiations with Iran move toward an inflection point, a White House official told Military Times. Trump, speaking at an event unveiling a new Air Force One aircraft, said that if Tehran fails to agree to a final…
One day in the early 1940s, David Plowden grabbed his Kodak Brownie box camera and headed to the train depot near his family’s farm in Vermont, accompanied by his mother. He was 11 and fascinated by steam engines — so much so that he often rode the rails and had befriended some of the conductors…
The Ultimate Fighting Championship event at the White House on Sunday is in some ways a birthday present for President Trump, who will celebrate turning 80 by cheering on the fighters inside the specially constructed Claw on the South Lawn. One V.I.P. guest at the fight will be celebrating, too: David Ellison, the technology heir…
It was a perfect sunny day for lounging poolside at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The sky was a keen pale blue, with that piercing quality familiar in Southern California. The pool, where a man with straight black hair drifted on a pink and green striped raft, was a deeper, cerulean blue. It looked a lot…
David Henderson, a poet who rose to prominence with the pathbreaking Black Arts Movement in the 1960s and went on to write a best-selling biography of Jimi Hendrix that changed the way many interpreted Hendrix’s life, music and untimely end, died on May 14 in Lincoln Park, N.J. He was 83. His death, at a…
