Pets throughout history: Dickens’s crow and Michel de Montaigne’s on cats
Letters and extracts both new and old
Society & Culture
A love letter to Irish trad, the music of my childhood I thought I'd always hate
In the words of a very old song: Óró, sé do bheatha ‘‘bhaile. Welcome home
Secret Barrister: “make legal aid universally available for anybody charged with a criminal offence”
The lawyer and author also tells Prospect they "always wanted to be a comedy writer"
Life lessons from jellyfish
This year, picking my way through the detritus of the storms, the plight of the jellyfish felt somehow more apt, more meaningful and perhaps a lot closer to home
When Latin goes wrong
Sean Hannity's viral gaffe this summer was one of the many recent Latin translations to go wrong. Some have a more hilarious side
The dark side of the natural food craze
We need to start evaluating choices through the lens of how it affects the producers—not just the consumer
The duel: Is the UK overpopulated?
One contributor says it's time to wake up to demographic reality. The other warns against anti-migrant scaremongering—and questionable economic assumptions. Who is right?
Can Tim Davie save the BBC?
The marketing man with a Conservative background is the exactly the right person to defend the corporation from a determined assault from the right
The rise of the rage mum
Her fury has built over a turbulent summer stateside, just in time for the presidential election
Dancers, podcasts and OnlyFans: How Covid-19 popularised the side hustle
Platforms like Patreon, OnlyFans, and Substack have seen an explosion in sign ups. But do users actually manage to turn a profit?
The power of informal play
Elite athletes learn more from unstructured sport than from formal academy training
Can strict schools save poor children?
Strong discipline mixed with reassurance from teachers has turned round schools. But critics say it's too harsh
“Who is this moron, flying around?”: A short history of our failed love affair with space travel
Even after the moon landing, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin found themselves quickly forgotten
Horace and Me: The case for re-reading poetry
I wasn't impressed when I read the Roman poet at 21. But now I see his works in a new light
Letters and extracts throughout history: Going to school
"My mother, as we drove along in the coach, admonished me that I was now going into the world and must learn to think and act for myself"
"No-shows" are jeopardising restaurants—and demonstrate how alienated from one another we've become
Stricken restaurants are now considering the unthinkable: taking deposits upon booking. But there's another solution that harkens back to a pre-digital age
A love letter to county recorders, unsung heroes of Britain's countryside
Boris Johnson recently pledged to cut the “newt counting delays” in the British planning system. But without our county recorders, our understanding of our landscapes would plummet
How lockdown sparked a national love affair with pets
Many families have expanded in recent months. Their new additions have fur and four legs
We now have one of the best-ever opportunities to change bad habits
Self-help advice can be tedious, but this really is a chance to transform unhealthy behaviour
I’m a clinical psychologist—here’s how exams are damaging young people’s mental health
It's time to ask ourselves if we’re really happy with our current approach to schooling, which so sharply affects young people’s mental wellbeing and learning