Notebooks

Notebooks are snapshots from our writers, reflecting on current affairs and underappreciated aspects of culture and history.

George Lucas' space epic is the morality tale for our age.

Classicists have finally worked out an identity for Catullus's lover Lesbia we can all believe in - Clodia Pulchra, wife of Pompey Junior.

The quaint university town is where ancient heritage meets the future.

London's plaques are testament to its status as a city of exiles.

Mayor Anne Hidalgo's push to 'green' Paris is turning one of the world's most beautiful cities into an urban wasteland.

Sweden's social democrats dominated politics for half a century. But continuous power bred arrogance, ideology and eventual economic stagnation.

The crisis of meritocracy is a crisis of dignity. We need to find new ways to value what people are good at.

A failing school system has eroded meritocracy in America. But innovative educators are turning the tide.

Although merit is an age-old idea, the West's post-60s culture of narcissism reshaped it in novel ways, spurring the rise of smug meritocrats.