Italy
Underrated: Dante Alighieri
In praise of the author of the original Inferno, who ennobled not only the Italian language but all humanity
Overrated: Dan Brown
The best-selling novelist condescends to his readers and relies on ignorance, but is taken seriously by many
Is This the Great Italian Novel?
The Art of Joy by Goliarda Sapienza has been hailed as the Great Italian Novel. If this is the greatest, then how dull must the rest be?
Money Troubles
‘The malaise in Western Europe is attributable to affluence bought not by economic dynamism but by reckless borrowing. The response of Greece and Italy is to walk away from democracy’
Tolerating the intolerant
“For those who thought that a global pandemic would sound the death knell for identity politics, think again”
How to prevent the next pandemic
‘I have been reporting as a science journalist for years that the world is at increasing risk of pandemics like this; that this was predicted; that we know what we need to do to prepare and we simply haven’t done it; and that more and worse pandemics are coming so we need to do that, now’
D’où parles-tu? The post-truth world
Power, illusion and the open society: how postmodernism undermines our foundational concepts