Ben Macintyre



Profile:
Full name: Ben Macintyre

Area of interest: Current affairs, politics, historical controversy

Journals/Organisation: The Times

Email: [mailto:ben.macintyre@thetimes.co.uk ben.macintyre@thetimes.co.uk]

Personal website:

Website: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/columnists/benmacintyre

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Biography:
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Education:

Career: The Times: joined the paper in 1992 as New York Correspondent, became Paris Bureau Chief then US Editor, based in Washington, returned to the UK in 2002 as parliamentary sketch-writer editor; edited of The Times Weekend Review, a weekly supplement covering the arts and literature, then writer at large, associate editor

Current position/role: Writer at Large and Associate Editor


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Viewpoints/Insight: Booksense interview

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Books & Debate:

 * Forgotten Fatherland: The Search for Elisabeth Nietzsche, 1992 (ISBN 0374157596); The Napoleon of Crime, 1998 (ISBN 0006550622); A Foreign Field, 2002 (ISBN 0006531717); The Englishman's Daughter: A True Story of Love and Betrayal in World War I, 2003 (ISBN 0385336799); Josiah the Great, 2005 (ISBN 0007151071); Agent Zigzag OCLC 77004296, 2007

Latest work: Operation Mincemeat OCLC 4498345 January 2010

Speaking/Appearances:

Debate: 

The Times:
Column name:

Remit/Info: Current affairs, Politics, Historical Controversy

Section: Comment

Role: Writer at Large and Associate Editor

Pen-name:

Email: [mailto:ben.macintyre@thetimes.co.uk ben.macintyre@thetimes.co.uk]

Website: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/columnists/benmacintyre

Commissioning editor:

Day published: Tuesday

Regularity: Weekly

Column format:

Average length: 950 words



Articles:

 * There’s nothing innocent about the golliwog - Behind all childhood nostalgia lies a sinister stereotype that has been used to ridicule black people - 22nd November 2013
 * Boris is only playing at being Bertie Wooster - Forget the bumbling persona, Jeeves is the Wodehouse character the London Mayor really resembles - 15th November 2013
 * Russia’s art theft still violates civilised values - Treasures stolen towards the end of the war are worth 80 times the recently discovered Munich hoard - 8th November 2013
 * Why did JFK  die? Well, the CIA won’t tell us - Conspiracy theories will keep multiplying until 50,000 pages of assassination-related records are released - 1st November 2013
 * The hatred that still dares to speak its name - Roma people have been persecuted in Europe for 12 centuries. Now the poison is erupting again - 25th October 2013
 * Now sorry seems to be the easiest word - The Plebgate policemen shouldn’t be pressurised into a false apology — they should be investigated - 18th October 2013
 * A history yarn with everyone in the picture - A tapestry telling the chequered story of Scotland’s past should delight unionists and nationalists alike - 11th October 2013
 * Sporting hero who thought outside the box - As football celebrates its 150th birthday, we should put the man who drew up its rules in Trafalgar Square - 27th September 2013
 * Sorry, Scott fans: noble death is so last century - Shackleton is the more celebrated explorer today because we value survival over martyrdom - 20th September 2013
 * That Great War – killingly funny, you know - Soldiers who wrote The Wipers Times realised that sometimes the only response to horror is to laugh - 13th September 2013
 * Shrapnel kills just as surely as a gas bomb - Chemical warfare is a universal taboo. But Assad has killed far more people with conventional weapons - 6th September 2013
 * Big Brother is watching us? How comforting - Digital surveillance by the security services is outraging the world. Only Britain finds being spied on reassuring - 31st August 2013
 * Big Brother is watching us? How comforting - Digital surveillance by the security services is outraging the world. Only Britain finds being spied on reassuring - 30th August 2013
 * How a Trabant can steer Putin the right way - As America accuses Russia of Cold War aggression, both could learn some perpective from a famous old banger - 9th August 2013
 * Writers can no longer hide behind a pen name - B. Traven took the secret of his identity to the grave. Robert Galbraith was unmasked as J. K. Rowling in weeks
 * Sssh ... flirting in the British Library is nothing new - The row about undergraduate behaviour is just the latest round in an ancient academic fight - 26th July 2013
 * Doozra, dolly, snicko: cricket is a word-game - The Ashes series won’t just be played with bat and ball but with language that goes far beyond the game’s boundaries - 19th July 2013
 * The octogenarian who rescued Afghan history - Document by document, one indomitable American has been undoing the damage from decades of conflict - 12th July 2013
 * Russell would have strong words for Leveson -The great Times correspondent had no truck with those who wanted to limit what newspapers could report - 5th July 2013
 * Without Prussia we’d all be speaking French - Wellington outrageously rewrote history. All the more reason to celebrate the ‘coalition’ victory at Waterloo - 28th June
 * America’s idea of good mobsters goes on trial - Whitey Bulger doesn’t want his name blackened. He reckons he was a true Robin Hood, not a ruthless criminal - 21st June 2013
 * Don’t judge the Great War by what came later - History cannot be read backwards. The Germany of 1914 was very different from the one that embraced Nazism - 14th June 2013
 * The wrong is righted. We should feel proud - Those who dismiss yesterday’s Mau Mau settlement as a waste of money fail to see its historic importance - 7th June 2013
 * How we won the war: bugging, burglary, bribes - The defectors, double agents and saboteurs who outfoxed Nazi Germany met their match in the Soviet Union - 24th May 2013
 * Russian spies still seek to humiliate the West - The comical uncovering of the hapless CIA man Ryan Fogle conceals the raw aggression of Putin’s regime - 17th May 2013
 * Its refusal to resist Hitler still shames Ireland - Dublin has pardoned soldiers who fought the Nazis. Now it must withdraw its condolences on the Führer’s death - 10th May 2013
 * That Keeler face haunts us even more today - Pity the guileless young victim of John Profumo who, like Jimmy Savile later, believed himself unassailable - 3rd May
 * Maps are no longer controlled by the mighty - Iran is launching an ‘Islamic Google Earth’. But in the digital age everyone can be their own cartographer - 26th April 2013
 * The US mustn’t fan the flames of conspiracy - Bombs, explosions, poison letters ... Americans live in fear because they worry the authorities are hiding the truth - 19th April 2013
 * It will be a war funeral to end all war funerals - Next week’s gun salutes and military bands are redolent of an era when victory and defeat could be clear-cut - 12th April 2013
 * If MI6 had done this killing they’d never tell - The murder of Patrice Lumumba was too brutal and shambolic to have been organised by the secret service ‘witch’ - 5th April 2013
 * Man’s bond with pigeon is no flight of fancy - Calls to ban bird racing misunderstand a history of mutual benefit that stretches back to Ancient Egypt - 29th March 2013
 * The not-the-slightest-bit-great Train Robbery - The British penchant for romanticising crime has turned the heist of 1963 into an orgy of moral hypocrisy - 22nd March 2013
 * The Pope must clean himself of history’s stain - Questions are being asked about the new pontiff’s attitude to the Argentine junta. He should condemn or confess - 16th March 2013
 * The great auk needn’t be as dead as a dodo - We’ve played havoc with the environment, so now we should intervene to put things right by reviving extinct species - 8th March 2013
 * Red tape killed bin Laden and won us the war - Good old-fashioned paperwork can solve crimes and right wrongs. But in a digital age, our records are under threat - 1st March 2013
 * Face the facts: Capote’s non-fiction is fiction - In Cold Blood seemed a superb marriage of journalism and literature. But you can never take a writer’s word for it - 15th February 2013
 * Meet Polydore Vergil, the original spin doctor - Henry Tudor’s PR operation to blacken the name of Richard III was a very modern piece of manipulation - 8th February 2013
 * Mussolini, Stalin and great leaps backwards - Strong countries like Germany honestly confront their past. Italy and Russia, by contrast, rewrite their history - 1st February 2013
 * How Kim Philby made Britain a better place - The spy’s defection 50 years ago stopped us living off old glories and ended the dominance of the old boy network - 25th January 2013
 * Timbuktu’s history has been taken hostage - The Pearl of the Desert’s ancient heritage of tolerance and learning is threatened by puritan Islamist fanatics - 18th January 2013
 * We left more than Spitfires behind in Burma - As the country opens up, the magnificent but crumbling colonial architecture of old Rangoon faces obliteration - 11th january 2013
 * How Britain politely took over the Falklands - Argentina claims it was blatant colonalism. In fact it was laid-back, bloodless and with the agreement of the locals - 4th January 2013
 * Revealed: care in the Stone Age community - The 4,000-year-old remains of a disabled man suggest that empathy for our fellow humans is nothing new - 28th December 2012
 * No apocalypse now (so it must be next week) - We can scoff at the Mayan prophecy, but humans instinctively join the tribe when confronted by danger - 21st December 2012
 * Bilbo Baggins was born in the Somme mud - Tolkien’s hobbits inhabit a distant mythological land. But they are rooted in the real soldiers he met in the trenches - 14th December 2012
 * Whistling in the dark doesn’t serve the truth - Malpractice will never be exposed via confidential hotlines. Shout it loudly and publicly - 7th December 2012
 * Bring up the body – but the mystery remains - Exhuming Yassir Arafat will not prove who killed him. Science can provide facts, but not the historical truth - 30th November 2012
 * Typing is dead. Long live writing - The eternal predictions that technology will ruin literacy are always wrong. Socrates would have loved the iPhone - 23rd November 2012
 * Spy vs Spy makes the world a dangerous place - At the heart of David Petraeus’s downfall is a deadly rivalry between the FBI and CIA that has cost America dear - 16th November 2012
 * Coming your way: a Clinton v Bush rematch - America adores its political clans. So Hillary against Jeb in four years’ time would be the mother of all battles - 9th November 2012
 * 007’s latest mission: restoring Britain’s pride - Bond’s knees have gone, his stubble is greying: he’s the ideal hero for a newly confident, post-imperial country - 2nd November 2012
 * We won’t change Afghanistan. It changes us - It is only by ‘going native’ and learning to think in local ways that Westerners can influence this seductive place - 26th October 2012
 * Money talks. But will it speak up for Romney? - It looked as if Mitt’s millions would scupper his campaign. But his riches-to-rags-to-riches story might just pay off - 19th October 2012
 * The US is buzzing, but it’s a Wasp-free zone - In 1992 all four presidential candidates were White Anglo-Saxon Protestants. That’s four more than this year - 12th October 2012
 * At last Romney gets his hamburger sizzling - In the first presidential debate, the challenger managed to throw off the mantle of unapproachable, elitist wonk - 5th October 2012
 * Close the borders. Save Britain’s ash trees - Dutch elm disease was a disaster. A new fungus could be far worse, destroying up to a third of our woodland - 28th September 2012
 * Can profit beat pride in the Asian Falklands? - Bitter history is behind Japan and China’s struggle over a small group of islands, yet oil might solve the squabble - 21st September 2012
 * A DNA swab, his kingdom for a DNA swab - The science that could identify Richard III’s bones could also clear him of murdering the Princes in the Tower - 14th September 2012
 * Footnotes are the antidote to toxic history - Those involved in nationalist disputes around the world need to learn the meaning of Vergangenheitsbewältigung - 7th September 2012
 * Osama’s death – the Hollywood blockbuster - The true story of the Abbottabad raid has been obscured by the twin demands of ballot box and box office - 31st August 2012
 * Like Hal, Harry will be forgiven his roistering - The Prince’s high jinks not only humanise the Royal Family but show his brother in a more flattering light - 24th August 2012
 * There’s no reality in this TV wargame show - Having C-listers fight make-believe battles for our entertainment can only trivialise the sacrifices of real soldiers - 17th August 2012
 * How fishing got Robert Hughes hooked on art - The trenchant Australian critic was as combative as a pike. But he learnt from the meditative quiet of angling - 10th August 2012
 * We justified torture in the jargon of violence - ‘Dilution’ or ‘enhanced interrogation’? From Kenya to Guantánamo, double-speak is deployed to help officials sin quietly - 20th July 2012
 * Faster, higher, Poppa: the best Olympian of all - For the creator of the Paralympics the Games were about overcoming — first the Nazis, then disability - 13th July 2012
 * Now authors can e-read over your shoulder - Once you curled up alone with your favourite writer. But digital devices make your reading habits an open book - 10th July 2012
 * When tax scams were in-wall, not offshore - Georgian window-blockers were the Jimmy Carrs of their day — only more visible - 29th June
 * Alan Turing was more than just a gay victim - His death was grim, but in the permissive, anarchic atmosphere of Bletchley his genius was allowed to flourish - 22nd June 2012
 * A furious warning to today’s warmongers - Read Paul Fussell’s explosion of the myth of military glory before you rattle your sabres over Syria or Iran - 15th June 2012
 * Ghostly sect of Syria’s past haunts its future - The Alawites shoring up the Assad regime use hundreds of years of religious persecution to justify their brutality - 8th June 2012
 * Tony is back. But what shall we do with him? - The former Prime Minister’s talents are too big to waste: he’s just the man we need to keep the kingdom united - 1st June 2012
 * Now Britannia can rule under the waves - We should use these island relics of empire to halt the despoliation of the ocean bed and save fish from extinction - 22nd May 2012
 * It’s bullying, Mitt. How can you not recall it? - You’re a perpetrator, a victim or a bystander. The playground incident tells us much about the presidential hopeful - 15th May 2012
 * The end of empire should be its own reward - MBEs and OBEs are the final shackles of our colonial past. The Olympics and Jubilee offer a chance to break them - 8th May 2012
 * They took Osama’s image along with his life - This was the model of a modern international assassination, a ruthless media campaign to neuter the enemy - 1st May 2012


 * killing puts the world in danger'' - America’s remote-controlled execution without trial of one of its own citizens sets a terrifying precedent - 10th October 2011
 * Dad’s Army: the perfect model for the Tories - The public would vote for politicians with fortitude, character, courtesy and a willingness to laugh at themselves - 4th October 2011
 * Stand up to Putin and stop the Cold Rush - The Arctic must be put under global law to avert the catastrophe threatened by the scramble for its fuels - 27th September 2011
 * It’s no state secret that this law is often abused - The Official Secrets Act does little to protect national security and a lot to keep the public in the dark - 20th September 2011
 * Why Cameron needs Smiley more than ever - Russia may urge Britain to forget Litvinenko and the past but it is now revelling in new Cold War-style espionage - 13th September 2011
 * Truth? Give me cheats and fibbers any day - A foolproof lie detector sounds like a marvellous breakthrough. But a world of pure honesty would be unbearable - 5th September 2011
 * with that joke. It might be loaded'' - Humour can topple tyrants – but it can also be used as a tool of oppression, as P. G.Wodehouse found to his cost - 30th August 2011
 * master of the futile fight to the end'' - Gaddafi boasted about his heroic resistance, but he has not been able to inspire the blind loyalty that the Führer did - 23rd August 2011
 * Scots have far too much of a good thing'' - Today the drink is killing them. The re-released Whisky Galore! harks back to a simpler, more hospitable age - 2nd August 2011
 * mass murderer is no match for a paperclip'' - The resolute way that Norway stood up to the Nazis shows the futility of Anders Behring Breivik’s terrorism - 26th July 2011
 * I’ve stopped collecting I feel complete'' - I am finally finished with this strange and gentle form of British male madness. But why did I start in the first place? - 19th July 2011
 * great leap of madness exposed'' - Mao’s Great Famine by Frank Dikötter is a harrowing and brilliant book, meticulously researched, gripping and supremely important - 12th July 2011
 * must not renege on its wartime debts'' - This refusal to restore goods and property looted by the Nazis is a continuing stain on the national character - 5th July 2011
 * that a hero or a coward behind the mask?'' - Online anonymity is precious for Middle East protesters — but that freedom is abused by hackers and bullies - 28th June 2011
 * revolt won’t be buried like Hama was'' - In 1982 Hafez Assad razed a city to crush a rebellion. In the age of YouTube his son no longer has that option - 21st June 2011
 * long walk from Leigh Fermor to Obama'' - Even in the age of Google Earth and Wikipedia, travel writing is not dead; it just appears in other guises - 14th June 2011
 * the DNA era, there are no unknown soldiers'' - Once mass killers could hope that they and their victims would stay unidentifiable. Now science is fighting back - 7th June 2011
 * are not amused? Prince Philip couldn’t care less'' - The Duke of Edinburgh is a monument to a vanishing form of humour. We should celebrate him while we still can - 31st May 2011
 * bifocal view has Britain in sharp focus'' - Through his grandfathers the US President sees two sides of our past – wartime bravery and colonial cruelty - 24th May 2011
 * unfaithful servants of the people'' - Britain may be too censorious about its politicians’ sex lives but nudge-nudge admiration is no less misguided - 17th May 2011
 * truth will out. Obama should know this'' - While Britain is now intent on opening up the past to public scrutiny, America seems to be as secretive as ever - 10th May 2011
 * Laden: the false prophet who failed to steal history'' - A fraud, a coward and an historical vandal, bin Laden peddled a partial view of the past to further his barbaric cause - 3rd May 2011
 * pox on those who’d keep this deadly virus'' - By destroying the last stocks of smallpox we can finally bring an end to a toxic microbial arms race - 26th April 2011
 * Aim. Fire. Tidy desk. Go back home'' - Is it really warfare when machines replace men — and risk, self-sacrifice, horror and bravery are taken away? - 19th April 2011
 * device No 1: the legal rubber stamp'' - Whether tackling the Mau Mau or suspects in Guantánamo, it is always wrong to put policy before the law - 12th April 2011
 * bare-chested cheek of a French thinker'' - Whether he’s muscling into queues or conflicts, Bernard-Henry Lévy doesn’t know his place. Thank goodness - 29th March 2011
 * that beat Rommel may fox Gaddafi too'' - The conflict in Libya today has remarkable parallels with the battles of 1941-42 – as the Colonel might appreciate - 22nd March 2011
 * quakes leave the Japanese unshakeable'' - They call it ‘gaman’ – the unflappable stoicism that helps this nation survive whatever nature throws at it - 15th March 2011
 * dogs of war must be on a tighter leash'' - The UK is so reliant on private military companies that it may no longer be able to fight without them - 8th March 2011
 * is too keen to trade on his royal status'' - ‘Air Miles Andy’ should beware the anger aroused when lesser members of a ruling clan live too high on the hog - 1st March 2011
 * model dictatorship is turning to dust'' - For all his seeming madness, the Libyan leader’s antics have been cleverly calculated to keep his people in check - 22nd February 2011
 * rare event – an artist displays intelligence'' - Until now, our images of MI6 came from Smiley or 007. Now a series of paintings exposes the blunt reality - 15th February 2011
 * novel handbook to Egypt’s revolution'' - To understand what is happening in Tahrir Square a surprise bestseller by a Cairo dentist is required reading - 8th February 2011
 * America needs True Grit once more'' - The Coens’ remake of a classic western pays proper respect to a great novel that has striking modern resonance - 1st February 2011
 * – it’s absolutely super-duper'' - Where once India copied the language of the Raj, it now produces its own confident and flourishing version - 25th January 2011
 * last Hollywood history is no longer bunk'' - Nitpickers, beware, there’s not much wrong with The King’s Speech. The movie industry has new respect for the past - 18th January 2011
 * new opening in Afghanistan’s theatre of war'' - A fringe play transferring from London to the Pentagon will teach soldiers that their enemy’s history is their own - 11th January 2011
 * colonial legacy still poisons Africa'' - Ivory Coast’s spiral into chaos is exacerbated by the reluctance of Paris to give up power in its former possessions - 4th January 2011
 * are the Chaco’s friends. Let them in'' - An ‘uncontacted’ Paraguayan tribe must be protected from intruders, but today’s researchers mustn’t pay for past crimes - 28th December 2010
 * should listen to Lawrence of Afghanistan'' - The hero of the Arab revolt pioneered modern insurgent warfare and still offers the best insights into defeating it - 21st December 2010
 * Tyrant TV and Iran’s ratings are slipping'' - From Ancient Rome to the Nazis, parading your enemies is not a sign of despotic power but of weakness - 14th December 2010
 * spying isn’t dead. It’s merely sleeping'' - We are obsessed with honey traps, hair colour and Mata Hari. We should take Moscow’s women agents more seriously - 7th December 2010
 * ctrl WikiLeaks will mean more del'' - Enjoy this stash of secrets while you can: diplomats are unlikely to leave their electronic tracks uncovered in future - 30th November 2010
 * succeeds like the right succession'' - Women tend to make the best monarchs. Anne should be next in line, with Queen Zara (and King Mike) to follow - 23rd November 2010
 * no man happy until he’s on our index'' - David Cameron wants to measure national contentment, not economic growth. But you can’t engineer satisfaction - 16th November 2010
 * history of the world in black and white'' - The President was a voracious reader about the past but overlooked its complexity - 10th November 2010
 * entente is about to get even more cordiale'' - After centuries of enmity, Britain and France will make common military cause. But the idea is older than you think - 2nd November 2010
 * and very nasty, the gun for all seasons'' - The Kalashnikov AK-47 rifle has done more damage to the world than many more sophisticated weapons - 26th October 2010
 * Abbey, 1912 – why, it’s just like 2010'' - The television series presents a picture of an elegant, untroubled age. The reality, like today, was very different - 19th October 2010
 * and Chile: a marriage of true mines'' - A century ago one in ten of our male workers was a miner. No wonder we’re fascinated by the San José drama - 12th October 2010
 * in MI5, spy as the Romans spied'' - The toga-and-dagger world of classical espionage has intriguing parallels for the modern security services - 5th October 2010
 * this Unholy Trinity the grandson also rises'' - The Kims have used all the trappings of religious fervour to establish their dynastic dictatorship in North Korea - 28th September 2010
 * James Bonds don’t use the licence to kill'' - Britain’s wartime spy chiefs knew assassination was counterproductive. It’s a lesson the CIA should learn - 21st September 2010
 * British take to moaning, not to the streets'' - Our winters of discontent are a grim contrast with flamboyant French industrial action - 14th September 2010
 * who won Blitz’s ‘Battle of the Beams’'' - The unsung Reginald Victor Jones used radio waves to successfully counter the Luftwaffe’s deadly attack on Britain - 7th September 2010
 * and espionage, an ideal partnership'' - The dismay at the exposure of the Cambridge spy ring has an echo today in the Pakistan betting imbroglio - 1st September 2010
 * your head. This is hallowed ground'' - Barack Obama’s biggest mistake as President has been underestimating the feelings over Ground Zero - 24th August 2010
 * to a plate near you: the Frankenfurter'' - Artificial meat grown in a vat of chemicals may not make the mouth water, but it could solve the world food crisis - 17th August 2010
 * quiet on the Afghan fiction front'' - A decade of warfare has yielded some brilliant nonfiction. But no novels - 10th August 2010
 * tuna, the fish that is too tasty to live'' - Man’s uncontrollable appetite has driven the Porsche of the seas to the brink - 3rd August 2010
 * and bias and golden nuggets of truth'' - Today’s political memoirs are not the first draft of history - 13th July 2010
 * a mix of fact, fiction and fear'' - Anna Chapman fits a compelling narrative — that our enemies live among us - 6th July 2010
 * poverty: plant a city in a failing one'' - Hong Kong model: rich nations pair with developing ones to start special economic zones - 29th June 2010
 * water everywhere, so not a drop to drink'' - The Shatt al-Arab, which once watered the Garden of Eden, has been brutalised by war, politics and greed - 27th June 2010
 * Gaulle would have hated the Saville inquiry'' - The French leader glossed over his nation’s shortcomings. But sometimes cold examination of the truth is needed - 15th June 2010
 * must address his rhetorical deficit'' - Churchill understood the power of words. In today’s economic crisis the Prime Minister needs to find his voice - 8th June 2010
 * it’s hard to stop paying the price of fame'' - Fifty years ago Harper Lee could turn her back on celebrity. Now Susan Boyle seems inescapably trapped in its spotlight - 1st June 2010
 * we stay humane, even in the hell of war?'' - Moral lines have been blurred on torture: our leaders should remember how the Allies fought with integrity - 25th May 2010
 * and Clegg: who is more upper crust?'' - It’s an intriguing, very British – and entirely pointless – pastime to work out which of our leaders is the posher - 18th May 2010
 * partners in this relationship must move on'' - It’s no longer special between Britain and the US. There are now pragmatists on both sides - 11th May 2010
 * in Prestatyn, never reaching the end'' - Rare roast lamb on the Tory plane, curly sandwiches on Brown’s bus. Why I love being trapped on the trail - 5th May 2010
 * in Prestatyn, never reaching the end'' - Rare roast lamb on the Tory plane, curly sandwiches on Brown’s bus. Why I love being trapped on the trail - 4th May 2010
 * there a bit of the baroness in Clegg?'' - Lib Dem leader’s remarkable great-great-aunt was a double agent who knew how to play both sides - 27th April 2010
 * to parties: the slogan isn’t working'' - So far not one catchphrase has stuck in this campaign. The electorate is too cynical to swallow empty phrases - 20th April 2010
 * dark times Poland needs the truth'' - Conspiracy theories grow out of secrecy. The Smolensk air crash investigation must be open - 13th April 2010
 * disaster or a birthday present for Blair?'' - Tony Blair was born on May 6. Some of Gordon Brown’s supporters may feel that this is a good omen, a sign that he will at last eclipse the man who stood for so long between him and the premiership - 7th April 2010
 * Ordnance Survey maps are a treasure'' - The mapping revolution has had a breakthrough. But too many Ordnance Survey jewels are still locked away - 6th April 2010
 * Churchill: an unlikely adviser in the Afghan conflict'' - The commander of US and Nato forces has been seeking guidance from the British statesman, who visited the Afghan-Pakistan border in 1897 - 30th March 2010
 * Obama must justify covert killing. Or halt it'' - It’s not just Israel that is eliminating its enemies. The US is pursuing a programme of state-backed assassination - 25th March 2010
 * shirts and blitzkrieg? It’s just not cricket'' - Hitler’s First XI was also his last. His aim to Nazify the sport was stumped by good manners and fair play - 18th March 2010
 * the Crimea. Look after the Army'' - The scandalous underequipping of soldiers in Afghanistan has uncomfortable echoes of 150 years ago - 11th March 2010
 * 17th-century power behind the Tory throne'' - The Conservatives want to present a modern face but the shadowy Lord Ashcroft belongs to a different era - 4th March 2010
 * Orwell foretold, Kim Jong Il is watching you'' - In the year that Nineteen Eighty-Four was published, the benighted North Korean state was born. Find the connection . . . - 25th February 2010
 * girl who stormed on to the bestsellers’ list'' - All the great fictional detectives hold up a mirror to their times, and Stieg Larsson’s bisexual Goth geek is no different - 18th February 2010
 * we’re less secret – but probably less safe'' - The decision to release material on the torture of Binyam Mohamed was right. But secrecy is still vital to government - 11th February 2010
 * be deceived, first you must deceive yourself'' - Whether in Hitler’s high command or Blair’s War Cabinet, it is easy to fall prey to ‘yesmanship’ and wishful thinking - 4th February 2010
 * need a dug-out canoe to navigate the net'' - The new Apple iPad isn’t the half of it. The torrent of internet information is forcing us to change the way we think - 28th January 2010
 * fault line runs straight to France'' - The earthquake’s destruction has been aggravated not by a pact with the Devil, but by the crippling legacy of imperialism - 21st January 2010
 * are where we store our memories'' - Auschwitz must be preserved; so must all important structures falling into decay, from Buckingham Palace downwards - 14th January 2010
 * Britain’s Indiana Jones of the Amazon'' - The newly discovered rainforest civilisation shows that deforestation is not just vandalism but a crime against history - 7th January 2010
 * of the moral resistance against Adolf Hitler'' - We forget in the retelling of history that Germans opposed to the Nazis were motivated by a powerful religious impulse - 5th January 2010
 * always comes before a fall'' - The Burj Dubai is just the latest example of mankind’s ‘edifice complex’ - 31st December 2009
 * TV debating will be a sudden-death contest'' - Britain’s political leaders are gambling with high stakes as they agree to American-style ‘presidential’ contests - 24th December 2009
 * I be complimentary, my dear Watson?'' - We celebrate flashy, insensitive Holmes, but it’s his sidekick’s common sense, bravery and friendship that we should admire - 17th December 2009
 * the Rosetta belongs can’t be set in stone'' - Great cultural artefacts and great intellectual ideas are no respecters of national boundaries. Everyone must share them - 10th December 2009
 * Hughes was a prophet of climate change'' - A generation of writers is just coming to terms with the biggest issue of our age. We should honour the man who foresaw it - 3rd December 2009
 * ghost of Robin Cook haunts Chilcot’s feast'' - In 2003 the irascible MP resigned over the Iraq war. His clarity of principle contrasts sharply with today’s grey fudge - 26th November 2009
 * in! Away with nostalgia!'' - Those complaining at the Lord's plans are in thrall to a stupidly rose-tinted view of the postwar years - 19th November 2009
 * stiff upper lip is no longer a badge of honour'' - For generations public grief has embarrassed Britain. But as a new generation experiences the pain of war, that is changing - 12th November 2009
 * internet is killing storytelling'' - Narratives are a staple of every culture the world over. They are disappearing in an online blizzard of tiny bytes of information - 5th November
 * Obama must face down the ghost of Vietnam'' - As the President ponders sending more troops to Afghanistan, he is haunted by the conflict that scarred the US psyche - 29th October 2009
 * a bonobo-help-bird world'' - We’re taught nature requires usto be selfish, but a new study argues empathy is natural for all animals - 22nd October 2009
 * Obama is out of step on gays in the military'' - It takes two kinds of bravery to come out in the Armed Forces. Those who show courage deserve more than political cowardice - 15th October 2009
 * tale brings shame on Britain'' - Labour and the Tories are ignorantly exploiting a tragic and complex period of Latvian history - 8th October 2009
 * Brown and the regrettable rise of the political spouse'' - Come back Denis Thatcher and Norma Major. This conference performance was just too sickly - 1st October 2009
 * scandal could become verse'' - In Britain, we hate being embarrassed. In France, disgrace is an excuse for a volume of doggerel - 24th September 2009
 * can be good for you. Ask Dan Brown'' - The move towards transparency in public life has been a huge advance. But individuals still need their privacy protected - 17th September 2009
 * pictures can mean more than words'' - The US Defence Department may disagree, but the images speak for themselves - 10th September 2009
 * brilliant artist self-destructing in the public eye'' - The day Michael Jackson’s music died seemed almost impossibly predictable, the chronicle of a death foretold, by him - 2nd July 2009 (See: Michael Jackson; summary)
 * green cow: it's not emission impossible'' - They may be frightening on the charge, but it's the beasts' malodorous eructations that should scare us most - 11th June 2009
 * the secret agent from Hendon'' - D-Day would not have been such a success without the work of an eccentric double agent - 6th June 2009
 * never needed history more than now'' - Its study may be declining in schools, but we are obsessed with the past and understanding it is crucial to the present - 28th May 2009
 * to Westminster'' - Britain's oldest - and oddest - private club, which has finally been forced to play by public rules - 21st May 2009
 * can't just let sleeping dogs lie'' - It is an injustice to those who are falsely accused, both living and dead, if past secrets remain hidden - 14th May 2009
 * passing of the unknown soldier'' - Thanks to science, there will be no more Tommy Atkins. The war dead will be buried with their names - 7th May 2009
 * some effort Man created swine flu'' - If you abuse nature by mass-producing meat in appalling conditions, you pay the price - 30th April 2009
 * idea that torture works is fiction'' - Subject suspects to extreme pain and they will say anything. How can we trust the ‘secrets' they reveal? - 23rd April 2009
 * battle against piracy begins in Mogadishu'' - The Somali marauders who are terrorising shipping have deep roots in the local ‘shifta' tradition of outlaw robber gangs - 16th April 2009
 * politicians and bum notes'' - The Kim Il Sung-along is just the latest attempt by a world leader to harness the power of a good tune - 9th April 2009
 * them wear hairshirts, not cloths of gold'' - Summits have been about conspicuous consumption since Henry VIII's day. In these grim times there must be a better way - 2nd April 2009
 * viewed from the window ledge'' - Suicide rate is likely to spike as economic distress combines with the collapse of belief systems - 26th March 2009
 * should sing louder for our heroes'' - We have become reluctant to elevate people to heroic status for acts of violence in distant lands - 19th March 2009
 * way we read as our world totters'' - Sales of romantic fiction, Dickens and Ayn Rand's paean to capitalism are soaring - 12th March 2009
 * Pakistan badlands must be tamed'' - Two British imperial legacies collided on the streets of Lahore when gunmen opened fire - 5th March 2009
 * turf in our green and peasant land'' - As the world slides into economic chaos, more people want a safe little patch of earth to cultivate - 26th February 2009
 * I hear the ghost of a buccaneer'' - The goatskin-clad figure who inspired Robinson Crusoe resonates across three centuries - 12th February 2009
 * boots the shoe throwers?'' - The significance of shoe hurling lies less in the intentions of the thrower than the reaction to it - 5th February 2009
 * matters who painted The Colossus'' - If we doubt who created a masterpiece then it no longer speaks to us in the same way - 29th January 2009
 * back Tom Paine'' - The words of a drunken Norfolk pamphleteer lay at the heart of the new President's message - 22nd January 2009
 * a machinegun to history'' - Three recent Hollywood films set in the Second World War are fun, but miles from reflecting reality - 15th January 2009
 * will bloom again'' - Whether it is flowerbulbs or derivatives there is nothing new about irrational speculation - 8th January 2009
 * MI5 lifts its cloak and shows its dagger'' - The secret services were once exactly that. But the need for a different kind of recruit has heralded a new openness - 7th January 2009
 * Scotland's poet can help'' - Burns's rude jokes and faith in old friends to overcome bad times provide a tonic - 1st January 2009
 * for euphoria pulls the modern crowd'' - For the multitudes who will gather to celebrate the Obama inauguration, just being there is the most important thing - 18th December 2008
 * for cholera: a heavy dose of political will'' - If a state breaks down, as Zimbabwe has, the disease is likely to spread. But, as in Victorian times, the solution is obvious - 11th December 2008
 * and joyless: Obama's take on Britain?'' - The President-elect's writings seem to be coloured by his grandfather's brutal treatment at the hands of the colonists - 4th December 2008
 * neighbours keep out'' - Without a culture of neighbourliness, it's easy for the rapist father and others to get away with their crimes - 27th November 2008
 * panic, it's just Mariah Careyensis'' - The minister's soup memo, Madonna's loo seats. It's what happens when you're at the top too long - 20th November 2008
 * harsh lesson of Afghanistan: little has changed in 200 years'' - As President Karzai visits Britain, an account written by the first European to visit his country still has much to teach us - 13th November 2008
 * unlikely lad who grew up to be president'' - The journey of Barack Obama journey is as compelling as it is exotic, and it lies at the heart of his success - 7th November 2008
 * always remember where they were when...'' - The election of Barack Obama, and his movingly understated acceptance speech, was one of those moments - 6th November 2008
 * McCain - he fought and lost with honour'' - He deserved to fail. But the Republican candidate was a worthy opponent - 6th November 2008
 * Pius: moral coward or saint?'' - More evidence is needed to judge how the wartime pontiff responded to his agonising predicament - 23rd October 2008
 * white lie that threatens Obama'' - The unspoken legacy of racism could still scupper Barack Obama's bid for the presidency - 16th October 2008
 * much does confidence cost?'' - The big money is chasing a commodity that cannot be bought or sold on the open market - 9th October 2008
 * words spell trouble for US voters'' - One senator is ‘cool', one is ‘maverick'. But neither Obama or McCain can feel happy about their epithet - 3rd October 2008
 * America still thinks big'' - It doesn't really exist, but the idealised rural community holds the key to the White House - 25th September 2008
 * the American dream'' - The US should put the same creativity that produced the car into tackling the energy crisis it has caused - 18th September 2008
 * the laureate more cash - and more wine'' - And don't force the poet royal to write about royalty. It might be the only way to get any great poetry from the post - 11th September 2008
 * British are the masters of deceit'' - From bamboozling the Nazis in the war to fooling the Taleban this week, nobody lies better than those famous stiff upper lips - 3rd September 2008
 * Macintyre on the gory reality behind nursery rhymes'' - 29th August 2008
 * grimly familiar tale in US history'' - The alleged plot to kill Barack Obama fits a dramatic pattern that began at a theatre 140 years ago - 27th August 2008
 * tribute to our enigmatic nature'' - Bletchley Park worked because of two great British traits - our secrecy and eccentricity - 22nd August 2008
 * of our guilty conscience'' - As real-life creatures face extinction, mankind is fascinated by the possibility of imaginary ones - 14th August 2008
 * films: the great escape from the truth'' - The reality of Stalag Luft III was far grimmer than the romanticised derring-do that became typical of postwar movies - 8th August 2008
 * A cultural religion'' - The Victorians, like us, were fascinated by logical deduction and a suspicion of the neighbours - 18th July 2008
 * absent fathers of Obama and McCain'' - How absent parents were crucial in shaping the characters of both Obama and his Republican presidential rival - 17th July 2008
 * here . . . and you’re not'' - Ever since the invention of the British postcard in 1894, holidaymakers have been struggling to find the perfect message - 17th July 2008
 * all have tickets to the universal museum'' - 10th July 2008
 * Mia, how can we resist the words of Abba?'' - 4th July 2008
 * Hitler: From national bogeyman to ruinous failure'' - The waxwork Hitler in Berlin is the latest proof of Germany’s determination to come to terms with a gruesome history - 4th July 2008

archive



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References:


Links:

 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Macintyre