It all started when I heard a knock at the door. It was just after 6.30pm and it was a cold, rainy night. Some young guy in sportswear stood there; neat hair, ready smile and an ID tag around his neck. “I’m not trying to sell you anything,” he said, “but, if […]

It’s New Year’s Day and the start of 2013. 2012 produced a lot of memorable moments in American politics, so let’s take a moment to look back on them. 2012 was election year, so it was guaranteed to produce some sad, idiotic, and down-right barmy moments; and it didn’t fail in producing […]

Often in films we are given characters that the writers make out to be ‘cool’. They are often given a typical ‘cool’ career (cop, ninja) and we are left expecting them to evolve into a tough hero or villain. Sometimes, they never do. Here are three examples of characters who […]

This year’s Oxford and Cambridge interviews are going on as we speak. Thousands of nervous teenagers will be chatting away, hundreds of dons will be nodding sagely. And guess what? Most of those kids will be rejected. It’s simple maths. There are far more applicants than there are places. This […]

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. The opening passages of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit introduced us to Bilbo Baggins, a middle-aged hobbit from the Shire. Most people watching Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey have probably seen the Lord of the Rings films, and so […]

Please note: This article was written before today’s tragic events in Connecticut, but not published until this afternoon. — The recent shooting in an Oregon mall, which left 2 dead, has reignited the debate on guns. Should America change the second ammendment? This question has divided the nation. The most […]

I confess that ‘Angelfall’ was one of my ‘impulse buys’ – I found this ebook cheap on Amazon, and thought the description interesting. I didn’t expect much – but Susan Ee’s storytelling blew me away. In a word: wow. There are a lot of books about angels around these days, […]

The 2012 Formula One season gave us eight different Grand Prix winners driving for six different teams, and a season long duel for the title crown between Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel. How will the season be remembered? In this feature, we pick the best, most memorable and worst moments […]