

So, Britain’s latest prime minister lasted just 44 days. Yup, that was it — less than the lifespan of a mosquito. It’s the time David Blaine spent starving himself in a glass box overlooking London’s Tower Bridge. Some people have…
We are privileged to have lived through this Elizabethan era. The late queen’s reign was magnificent in its longevity. It was unparalleled in its success. It was inspiring in its adaptability to a world changing at a far greater pace…
Boris has gone. He really has. The biggest personality in postwar British politics, bigger even than Churchill, has been brought down. His many opponents are jubilant, his many supporters distraught. Boris, as befits someone of such incredible charisma (he was…
Who’d have thought a 95-year-old woman, who’s just lost her husband of seven decades, could be so utterly ruthless? Who could know she’d stand ready to desert her favorite child? And who could imagine that she would put her business…
Why do people work all the hours God sends, then, when they finally get to take a vacation, insist on sleeping in a field? I’ve never understood camping. Well, that’s not quite true. When I was 21 and impoverished, I…
We Brits used to snigger at how few Americans had passports. Apparently, in 1990, passport ownership among Americans stood at just 4 percent. It’s grown massively since then, of course, but even now less than half of all U.S. citizens…
One big positive to put alongside the many negatives about COVID-19 is that millions of us should never have to commute again. It just isn’t necessary, and still won’t be when we’re free of the wretched virus. We can work…
If there’s one thing this pandemic has revealed, it’s that business travel was never anything more than one gigantic jolly. Call it a gravy train, if you like, or a big trough of goodies into which people stuck their heads…
Our host’s mouth fell open, her eyes wide with shock. It had been a joyful, trouble-free dinner party until that moment. In typical British fashion the wine had been flowing for several hours, the chat had been getting progressively louder…