Notebooks

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

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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

French flag at Lichtenberg Castle in Alsace.

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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

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer speaks to supporters at a watch party for the results of the 2024 General Election in central London, as the party appears on course for a landslide win in the 2024 General Election.

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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

Jordan Bardella at a rally in Lecleuse, April 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

C-47 Skytrains unloading at Tempelhof Airport during the Berlin Airlift.

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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

Joseph Cotton and Orson Welles in The Third Man.

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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

An American and South Korean soldier stand at a border outpost.

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South Korea between the great powers

South Korea rests between two great powers, China and the United States, and its foreign policy must navigate the economic, political and security dynamics of an increasingly polar..

Lukasz Bednarski June 18, 2024