Notebooks

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The agony and the ecstasy of Andy Murray

Andy Murray played tennis more brutally, more effectively, and with greater professional success than any Englishman of the modern era, while refusing to play the game of English m..

Alastair Benn July 11, 2024

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How women made Benjamin Disraeli

Hero of the 19th-century Tory party, Benjamin Disraeli's many amorous conquests, and their many complications, illuminate the startling contradictions of the man who changed Victor..

David Coates July 9, 2024

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France fragmented

Oppositional forces in French society have intensified. What were once cracks are now gaping holes.

Agnès Poirier July 8, 2024

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An uncertain idea of Britain

Neither major party campaigned in the general election with a clear sense of British economic and political identity. It is now up to the new Labour government to build one.

Angus Reilly July 5, 2024

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Hollywood’s most gifted scribe

The late screenwriter Robert Towne's gift for complex, literate dialogue put him in the first rank of cinematic aristocracy.

Alexander Larman July 4, 2024

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Eric Rohmer’s timeless antidotes

The French film director Eric Rohmer observed and chronicled the behaviour of his contemporaries, and offered an alternative rooted in Christian morality.

Muriel Zagha July 3, 2024

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The constitutional casualties of the French election

Facing an unprecedented defeat in the French Parliamentary elections, Emmanuel Macron is forced to confront the previously unthinkable: a government led by the far right.

Angus Brown July 1, 2024

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The Berlin Airlift’s lessons for Taiwan

If China blockades the Taiwan Strait, Taipei’s friends would need to launch an airlift even more comprehensive than the Berlin one.

Elisabeth Braw June 24, 2024

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The Third Man’s cuckoo clock mystery

The 1949 film The Third Man is recognised as one of the greatest pieces of British cinema of all time. The answer to a mystery at the heart of some its most famous lines might lie ..

Thomas W. Hodgkinson June 19, 2024