THE SAN MARINO GRAND PRIX, 1994. THIRTY years ago this May Day. AYRTON SENNA sits on the start line and removes his helmet, which he never usually does. “The helmet hides feelings which cannot be understood,” he once said. Today, he doesn’t bother to

“I can’t decide,” says Rishi. “What do you think?” “The blue socks are nice, darling,” says Akshata. We are in the flat. Rishi has been a bit down lately. There has been some voting happening in local places, but not very much of it was for him. Jame

SIR KEIR STARMER HAS SOME ambitious objectives for when he takes power: he wants to bring back sustained economic growth, achieve net zero by 2030, restore public services, and devolve power to local government. It would be wrong to fault Labour for

GIVING US HIS MODERN-DAY Falstaff (suddenly “Shakespeare’s ultimate gangster”, apparently), McKellen unfashionably relies on a fat suit for the role. Though such an approach is now often frowned upon by the obese/obese-conscious, old Gandalf deems hi

I’M BECOMING AN EVER MORE loyal devotee of Walter Presents, the sub-channel on Channel Four devoted to European crime and thrillers. Walter curates a kaleidoscopic showcase of topical dramas in vivid settings. In the first season of Arctic Circle, Ni

IT’S AN ELECTION YEAR, so political finance is back in the headlines. We have had the tawdry tale of Yorkshireman Frank Hester, the £10 million Conservative donor who said Diane Abbot makes you “want to hate all black women”. Then there was the hulla

ON THE DAY BEFORE OXFORD English finals, when Gregory’s tutorial group met for its valedictory session, their tutor, Dr Carstairs, asked them all what they intended nded to “do”. The predictable replies — this was the late 1980s — included two mercha

I AM STANDING IN THE CENTRE of a labyrinthine, faceless building in the ancient province of Limburg, that Netherlandish toe dipping into Belgian and German territory. A distinguished-looking gentleman approaches me and asks in broken English with a t

JUST BEFORE TEA ON THE SECOND day of the Lord’s Test match in 1990, GRAHAM GOOCH nudged a single that took his score to 299. The England captain then removed his white helmet and placed it in front of the stumps before sloping off for a cuppa. The im

THE EXPANSION OF FACIAL RECOGNITION technology (FRT) in the UK is happening at a rapid rate, with very little public debate, scant parliamentary discussion and, critically, without any clear laws to govern it. It’s long past time for the public to be

SINCE AT LEAST THE 1960S, THE ART world’s key tenet has been that all art is political. The purpose of artistic practice, therefore, is to change the world. In art school, art theory promotes critical trends such as decolonialism and degrowth. The ex

IN NOVEMBER 1920, THE RUSSIAN FUTURIST ILIA Zdanevich steamed down the Bosporus past a number of Russian warships moored at Istanbul. The initial awe he felt at witnessing the great moment when the Russian navy reached what Napoleon Bonaparte had cal

HOW STANDS THE WORLD of light literature here in the spring of 2024? Well, you may not be surprised to learn that everything is very flat — sales are supposedly 20 per cent down on this time last year. You can get into the Sunday Times paperback best

YOU KNOW THE STORY, BUT HERE’S a reminder: SCOTTISH WEDDING — THREE DEAD. If any operatic image can elbow out the chesty soprano snuffing it on the bed, it’s got to be the wild-eyed bride of Lammermoor in her blood-spattered wedding dress: little Luc

AS AN ATTRIBUTE, COOL IS a bit like charm. Anyone who thinks they possess it certainly doesn’t. Cool is elusive, slightly aloof, mercurial and fragile. It can’t be bestowed, whatever Time Out listicles tell you, and is much easier defined by absence

IN 1956, THE LATE JOHN HARRIS, a maverick and self-educated young architectural historian got a job at the Royal Institute of British Architecture (RIBA) as a junior curator of its architectural drawings. By his account, the collection was in a mess,

NOT TO MAKE THIS ABOUT me (LOLS, it’s always about me), but I realise this year’s columns are going a tad De Profundis. The question arises: is Betts having a breakdown, or is fashion? The answer, of course, is that these matters are not either/or. I

AGATHA CHRISTIE HAD MODEST aspirations for The Mousetrap when her murder mystery opened in 1952. Her producer predicted a 14-month run but the great literary stiletto-wielder replied, “It won’t run that long. Eight months perhaps.” By 1957, it had be

THE TWO MOST BORING WORDS IN THE ENGlish language? For a time, the answer from almost every news editor in London was “Northern Ireland”. Then came the Belfast Agreement, signed 26 years ago on Good Friday, 1998. Three decades of deadlock had come to

I HAVE NO DOUBT SOME PEOPLE really thrive on working from home but for the most part, I’m never very convinced it’s productive. Whenever I “WFH”, I usually end up training my spaniel, cooking complicated things with the slow cooker, or go out to the

“EVERYBODY BE COOL, THIS IS A robbery!” It’s 30 years since Pulp Fiction hit cinemas, and what a time it was to be young. Uma Thurman gazed down at us from the posters on our student walls as we listened to our taped copies of the soundtrack, involun

THE CRYSTAL PALACE DINOSAURS ARE still one of the glories of South London. When the Great Exhibition building was moved from Hyde Park to Sydenham and repurposed as a museum, its promoters stocked its gardens with giant Iguanodons and plesiosaurs, br

ALAN BENNETT, THAT MAN OF many talents, has said the time he served as a trustee of the National Gallery afforded more hours of pleasure than any other honour. You can see why. The freedom to wander round those rooms at nightfall, after the hordes ha

WINSTON CHURCHILL GOT A GREAT MANY THINGS RIGHT, BUT ONE THAT HE GOT BADLY WRONGwas the 1943 Powell and Pressburger film The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. Before even having seen it, the then Prime Minister decided that it was pro-German (it isn’t