The other night my wife’s piano teacher came to our house to conduct a lesson. This is not usual, I have to say. He not only teaches but is a successful concert performer who has performed all over the world. It was a one-off. At the end of the evening I asked him if …
To The Guardian I love Kingsley Amis’s response to a challenge about the usefulness of apostrophes: “Those things over there are my husbands.” Three different possible meanings. Bryan Morgan, Worksop, Nottinghamshire …and a butcher’s trick To The. Daily Telegraph: I once saw a notice outside our local butcher. It read “Sausage’s”. When I went in …
You might think that a little more empathy would help to heal the divisions in US politics, but it could actually worsen the situation by increasing polarisation. A recent survey found that those with a disposition for “empathic concern”, one of several traits that make up general empathy, seem to be more politically polarised. They …
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How can we become more like Iceland? That’s the question we should be asking. This sub-Arctic nation of only 330,000 people beat England at soccer, along with Argentina. And the reason for its success? A national plan, introduced 20 years ago, to promote clean living. It was introduced in response to authoritative American research on …
To The Sunday Times In 1960s Oxford I would see Cecil Rhodes’s statue, think how wrong he was and walk on. That is life in an open, tolerant country: bits of our history are sticking up everywhere, and we are free to admire, condemn or laugh at them. I prefer that to a country in …
