Cuba
Norman Lewis – a restless adventurer with a passion for broken-down places
John Hatt’s latest selection of the travel writer’s journalism includes articles on Castro’s Havana, the Yemen of the Imams, Batista’s Cuba, French Indo-China and Neapolitan men of honour
The dark side of life in Cuba
The first scent of trouble came when Cuba’s government ordered all its non-essential workers home. By packing them off (and…
Some uncomfortable truths about World Music
In his masterly, wide-ranging survey, Joe Boyd acknowledges that many artists’ expectations are unrealistic – and that their music is often greeted with contempt by home audiences
What Washington was like during the Cuban Missile Crisis (2002)
On 27 October 1962, US Defense Secretary Robert McNamara stepped out of crisis meetings and looked up at the sky.…
Portrait of the week
Home England expects everyone to wear masks in crowded places, Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, said in a televised address,…
Cuba libre
Havana There is an astonishing patience in the Cuban people, born of endless waiting. When a store has, say, chicken,…
Why are Labour MPs excusing Cuba’s authoritarian regime?
Thousands have taken to the streets in Cuba this week to protest against the authoritarian government that rules over them.…
Could street protests finally topple Cuba’s communist regime?
Could the growing tide of protests finally topple Cuba’s communist government? Many Cubans are certainly angry: Sunday marked the largest-ever demonstration against…
The world held its breath
Nuclear weapons carry a payload of cold logic: if both sides have them, neither will ever use them. But in…
Accentuate the negative
Sky One’s Breeders (Thursday) bills itself as an ‘honest and uncompromising comedy’ about parenting. To this end, the opening scene…
‘Where every vice was permissible’: Graham Greene’s Cuba
Cuba meant a lot to Graham Greene. Behind his writing desk in his flat in Antibes he had a painting…
The old man and his muse: Hemingway’s toe-curling infatuation with Adriana Ivancich
One rainy evening in December 1948, a blue Buick emerged from the darkness of the Venetian lagoon near the village…
Sixty years on
The book of the year has long been a favoured genre in popular history, and is a commonplace today. While…
On the money
The Big Short is a drama about the American financial collapse of 2008. It talks you through sub-prime mortgages, tranches,…
Cuban comet
By chance, my first night in Havana in 1987 was the night the clubs went dark to mark the death…
Portrait of the week
Home Parents would be able to have their children’s passports removed if they were suspected of planning to travel abroad…
From ambrosia to zabaglione
This Oxford Companion ranges from the sweet to the decidedly salty, while being the most politically correct reference book you will ever consult, says Paul Levy
Portrait of the week
Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, soon got used to the surprise of the Conservatives being returned in the general…
Cuba Notebook
Sloppy Joe’s — which starred in the film of Graham Greene’s Our Man in Havana — was always likely to…
Deep in the heart of darkness
For decades, all the outside world knew was that Patrice Lumumba, the Congolese independence leader, had been done away with.…
The Mandela files
His long-lost prison manuscript sheds new light on the president’s politics, smoothed over in ‘Long Walk to Freedom’
Long life
In Dorchester during the Christmas holiday I bought a two-slice electric toaster at Currys. It was a nice little toaster…
Dancing to a different tune
Carlos Acosta, the greatest dancer of his generation, grew up in Havana as the youngest of 11 black children. Money…
Why would anyone choose to live in Puerto Rico?
6 July 2024 9:00 am
US bailouts keep this poor relation afloat through bankruptcies, hurricanes and political bust-ups without even trying to boost its demographics or reverse its economic decline