Today, we begin a blockbuster serialisation of one of the most explosive political diaries ever to be published. Alan Duncan, a well-respected Tory MP for nearly three decades, used them to let off steam in private about the ‘monstrous egos’ that surrounded him. The diaries cover his final four turbulent years in Parliament, when Brexit … Read more
London in the depths of the first lockdown. Hunched over a laptop in her home, in one of the capital’s most chic neighbourhoods, a well-groomed woman haggles with high-powered American executives. For them, five time zones away, it is the still early evening; for her the dead of night. The deal is so sensitive that … Read more
Tucked away in the National Archives, among state documents and papers of historic significance, is a humble letter written by an anonymous woman. The script is a beautiful cursive, and although the paper is blotted and torn, the poignancy shines through, 100 years after the writer posted it when Britain was in the throes of … Read more
BOOK OF THE WEEK THE GRAN TOUR by Ben Aitken (Icon £14.99, 306 pp) When Ben Aitken discovers that for £109 he can get a four-night coach trip to Scarborough, with a cooked breakfast every morning, three-course dinner every night and excursions to York and Whitby, his first thought is: ‘That’s how much my sister … Read more
As Britain’s most beloved vet, James Herriot’s delightfully honest and at times hilarious reminiscences of a vet’s life in 1930s Yorkshire charmed millions — and were turned into a long-running hit BBC series. In the final part of our exclusive reprint there’s blood-soaked drama in Darrowby in this last gloriously evocative extract from the James … Read more