Who’s the greatest hero in popular English literature? I’d say it’s James Bond. And who’s the greatest anti-hero? I’d say it’s Flashman, the protagonist of a hugely entertaining mock-historical series written by George MacDonald Fraser (1925–2008). Slave-trading, slave-stealing and murder The character Flashman originally appeared as a coward, cad and bully in the Victorian novel […]
If you like books that are both entertaining and intelligent, here’s some advice that’s been good for two centuries and more: read The Monk. Written by a highly gifted teenager called Matthew Lewis and first published in 1796, this greatest of Gothic novels sparkles with wit and wisdom. Among much else, it contains one of […]
Shakespeare got it wrong. “There’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face,” says King Duncan in Macbeth (c. 1606), meaning that psychology can’t be read from physiognomy. But Shakespeare never saw Priti Patel, the British-born Indian Hindu who currently serves as Home Secretary. When you look at Patel’, do you see gentleness, […]
In the year 2000, the small Yorkshire town of Rotherham was little-known in Britain, let alone overseas. In 2020, Rotherham is infamous around the world as a place where Pakistani rape-gangs have been raping, prostituting and murdering working-class White girls for decades. Meanwhile, the staunchly socialist and fiercely feminist Labour council and Labour MP, Denis […]
The newly published report on anti-Semitism in the British Labour party couldn’t be more damning. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) spoke to dozens of witnesses as it investigated how Labour had repeatedly and remorselessly betrayed Britain’s Jewish community. Once the party had been their natural home; now it had become their sworn enemy. […]
A teacher is beheaded in France for showing his pupils some satirical cartoons of Muhammad. How do Britain’s noisiest defenders of free speech respond? They shout as loudly and urgently as they can: “Look, a squirrel!” No morality outside the Party Yes, the articles published at Spiked Online about the murder of Samuel Paty prove […]
“She was a genius,” says the Guardian. She was a “uniquely gifted artist who should be considered among the all-time greatest painters,” says the BBC. I say, no, she was not. The Italian Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi (1593–c.1656) was not a genius, was not uniquely gifted and should definitely not be considered a great painter. […]
