Commentators

Sir Vidia Naipaul is a purist when it comes to his writing. Fellow author Bruce Chatwin created a mystique about his life which enhanced his literary works

Terence Blacker: We need these brilliant obsessives

At a time when the careers of successful authors are as carefully marketed as those of politicians, it is good to be reminded now and then of the true nature of the literary life – egocentric, brutal, unreliable and often fuelled by fantasy and rage.

Inside Commentators

How much proof do global warming deniers need?

Friday, 27 August 2010

Johann Hari: Everything scientists said would happen is coming to pass

Harriet Walker: Time to make STDs taboo again

Friday, 27 August 2010

With infections among the young on the rise, where's our sense of shame?

Mary Dejevsky: Sell Ulster, and earn a peace bonus

Friday, 27 August 2010

Which government of the Irish Republic has not longed to go down in history as the one that brought the Emerald Isle back together?

Michael McCarthy: The delights of the vibrant harebell

Friday, 27 August 2010

I first became aware of harebells when I was 18 and working as a volunteer warden at a nature reserve on Anglesey. It was August, and I hadn't appreciated that small, bell-like, sky-blue flowers nodding on the ends of their stalks appeared at the end of the summer; I thought such things appeared in the spring, and were called bluebells. I suspect the confusion between harebells and bluebells, superficially similar although not related, is quite widespread, and indeed, north of the border the harebell is sometimes called "the Scottish bluebell" as it is found in the Highlands, where the bluebell is largely absent (although the oakwoods of southern Argyll are bluebell-crammed in May). There is one reference to the harebell in Shakespeare, in Cymbeline, but in Jessica Kerr and Anne Ophelia Dowden's Shakespeare's Flowers of 1970, Ms Kerr suggests that your man was referring to the bluebell, and the bluebell is indeed the plant which Ms Dowden has illustrated.

Will Cragin: Many of these brutal attacks were carried out in front of the women's children & husbands

Friday, 27 August 2010

We had been working with health centres since June in this area that has been overwhelmed by people fleeing the fighting. We received a UN alert that the area had been taken over by armed men, and it warned all humanitarian organisations to be careful and not go into the area.

Geoffrey Macnab: Idiotic judges get response they deserve

Friday, 27 August 2010

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Ampas) may have chosen to recognise Jean-Luc Godard with an honorary Oscar, but it's no surprise that Godard hasn't chosen to recognise it. In fact, giving him the award is an idiotic decision. He may once have made films with Brigitte Bardot (Le M�pris) and Jane Fonda (Tout Va Bien) but that never meant he was part of any mainstream.

Shaun Walker: Fears of social unrest when harvest fails

Friday, 27 August 2010

Russian view

Robert Verkaik: Plea bargain deal could avoid long and costly legal process

Friday, 27 August 2010

Asil Nadir's decision to return to Britain to face allegations of theft and fraud is only the beginning of a long legal process that could run for more than a year.