Category Archives: Journalism

Next month. I’m making an Analysis programme for Radio Four on the way that Americans tend to believe that history must have an architect or at least a meaning. This seemed more interesting to everyone that yet another go-around on … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I just had a letter from Mary Kenny which seems to illustrate perfectly the gap between evolutionary and cultural explanations of human benevolence. She’s an old friend, and a thoroughly decent person, so I like arguing with her because I … Continue reading → Continue reading →

A couple of months ago, I think, I found an extraordinary album on emusic, Dixie Kitchen by Mary Gauthier. It was twisted country music, with songs about aids, unhappy love affairs, growing up as a tomboy, unhappy love affairs, Jack … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I’ve just been rereading the Gintis essay which is going into Saturday’s Guardian, and it’s not bad at all. Anyone interested in hard sociobiology should definitely be reading him, and I reckon this is a fair introduction to one of … Continue reading → Continue reading →

An occasional series. One of the many delights of the Saturday FT is the superlative ponciness of Tyler Brûlé. His diary is reminds me of those software advertisements showing young men with chiselled jaws punching the air as they look … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Just when you think the Mail can’t possibly surpass its discovery of the threat posed to life by dihydrogen monoxide, it comes up with a headline like this. And the deadly gas in question … …is… carbon dioxide! Now that … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I’ve been wanting them for years, since I loathe reading the paper. Apart from a couple of columnists, it’s tripe: I can see it turning into the Daily Express for people who don’t care about Diana. It’s a coarse, inaccurate … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Owing to a tragic scheduling error, his testimony before the senate came in time for the Gdn’s front page, which meant that my carefully crafted thumbsucking was thrown away in favour of a report from someone who had the vulgarity … Continue reading → Continue reading →

a memorable obit in the Daily Telegraph today of M Scott Peck, the self-help guru, which closes with two paragraphs that could hardly be improved: Latterly he suffered from impotence and Parkinson’s Disease and devoted himself to Christian songwriting, at … Continue reading → Continue reading →

There may not be many readers of the wrap, but at least one of them is the editor, which is why yesterday’s worm’s eye column pitched up on the front of today’s Guardian. Continue reading →