Julie Bindel deserves praise for her readiness to investigate the murkier corners of this country - where civilisation often seems like a bad joke

Eugenics in the modern world

The great provocateur - Joan Rivers

John Lanchester's lesson in financial literacy is blighted by his contempt

John Betjeman was a poet who knew how to work society

Geoffrey Langlands has been deeply committed to education - even in an unstable region

The battle of the birds

'Glyndebourne - which can feel like travelling a very long way just for a picnic - is often filled for the second act by people taking themost expensive nap it is possible to take'

'There was a waiting room inside for all Speed Awareness miscreants and it resembled a clinic for sexually transmitted diseases'

'In Syria and Iraq my enemy's enemy is not my friend, not even by the wildest stretch of the imagination'