True intellectual happiness
Nikhil Krishnan provides many amusing vignettes of Isaiah Berlin, A.J. Ayer, Gilbert Ryle and others in the heyday of linguistic philosophy
Addicted to violence
The X-rated movies he’d seen by the age of ten included Deliverance, Taxi Driver and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre – which he’d then discuss with his child psychologist
Prophesying doom
In the wake of catastrophe, however random or unpredictable, one of the first things people can be relied upon to…
The least Soviet-friendly artist imaginable
The KGB might not have known much about modern art, but they knew what they liked. For instance, at what…
Men and sheds
The interview podcast is a genre immoderately drawn to gimmicks, as the logical space of possible formats is gradually exhausted.…
The best times you’ll never remember
It was once a favourite theory of optimistic drunkards that a suitably ‘moderate’ level of alcohol consumption provided covert health…
A worthy winner
To an observant outsider, the Soviets might have appeared to have developed an oddly intolerant attitude towards stray dogs. Every…
They had it coming
This year marks three decades since Robert Maxwell fell naked to his death from the deck of his yacht, The…
The art of the steal
Making one’s fortune in Occupied Paris was largely a matter of knowing the right people: in fact, the further to…
No more Mr Nasty
‘I used to be Mr Nasty! That was good! Mr Nasty was easy!’ Jeremy Paxman bellows at Michael Palin on…
The imitation game
Closely inspect No. 23 Leinster Terrace, Bayswater and you might notice the house has no letter box. Push at the…
Being Woody Allen
It’s been tough recently being Woody Allen, something that didn’t look too easy to begin with. Last year Amazon breached…
