'It is generally a bad idea for a magazine to spend too much time talking about itself. But this month is an exception.'

Has anti-smacking advocacy gone too far?

Miniature paintings suit the modern world — we live in a miniaturised world

The characters in Dickens's novels have voracious appetites — but how did Dickens dine?

There's nothing to stop us bringing back hereditary peerages — reflecting lifetimes of success rather than political cronyism

The Army is short of new recruits, but retention of personnel is a much bigger problem

'My particular bugbear is that inherently redundant phrase “forward planning”. Ever tried ‘backward planning’?'

‘Conservatives are forever on the back foot, even when the government does something good’

‘Ordinarily, the public should flay this political class at the next available chance. But our options seem deeply limited’

‘A Speaker with a strong political agenda is a dangerous creature under the Westminster model’