Notebooks

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

The Resurrection of Christ depicted on the main Archway to the entrance of the Basilica di San Marco in Venice.

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Easter’s message of love

Those who truly want to save Western Civilisation must begin by recapturing the promise of love embodied in Christ's Resurrection.

Fergus Butler-Gallie April 5, 2026

Pierre-Auguste Renoir's 'Luncheon of the Boating Party'.

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The civilising wonders of wine

The decline in alcohol consumption in Western societies suggests a gradual weakening of a shared civilisational inheritance.

Henry Jeffreys April 4, 2026

Defendants behind bars during a Mafia trial in Palermo, 1986. Credit: Universal Images Group North America LLC

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The unsolved crimes of Sciascia’s Sicily

For Leonardo Sciascia, Sicily serves as a microcosm of Italy, reflecting the nation’s broader power struggles and the pervasive reach of Mafia corruption.

Ian Thomson April 3, 2026

A vintage map from 1907 showing maritime trade routes through the Turkish Straits.

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How to manage a geopolitical chokepoint

The successful 1936 Montreux Convention, a grand diplomatic bargain over the Turkish Straits, shows why geopolitical chokepoints need a strong and reliable status quo power to act ..

Ziyi Wang April 2, 2026

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Why the war in Iran is not a gift to China

The notion that Beijing is the chief beneficiary of the US-Iran conflict is a long way wide of the mark.

George Magnus April 2, 2026

US Marines conduct a reconnaissance and surveillance rehearsal mission, part of a simulated amphibious assault exercise, March 24, 2026, in Diego Garcia, Chagos Islands.

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Trump’s unwinnable war

Mired in an open-ended confrontation with the Islamic Republic, President Trump is faced with a painful choice between launching a new forever war or accepting a humiliating defeat..

Eldad Shavit and Jesse R. Weinberg April 1, 2026

The V&A East Storehouse museum in the former Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

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When museums become storehouses

Museums now invite visitors behind the scenes. The result is a new kind of historical sublime: human creativity measured by volume.

Tim Abrahams March 31, 2026

A 1996 production of 'The Fortunes And Misfortunes Of Moll Flanders' starring Alex Kingston.

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Moll Flanders and the invention of modern life

In his picaresque novel 'Moll Flanders', Daniel Defoe presents experience as the true measure of character.

David Patrikarakos March 31, 2026

A Japanese poster for the film Metropolis.

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The age of Me is over. The age of Them has begun

It is half a century since Tom Wolfe coined the phrase the 'Me Decade'. Yet Me, We and You no longer capture a world increasingly shaped by 'Them', the systems and machines that no..

Bryan Appleyard March 30, 2026