iceland
A riveting show crammed with the kind of risky gags rarely heard on stage these days
How To Survive Your Mother is a play based on a memoir by political dramatist Jonathan Maitland. He portrays himself…
Nordic dream or nightmare?: The Mark, by Frida Isberg, reviewed
A test has been developed in Iceland to assess a citizen’s sensitivity and potential for anti-social behaviour. Will the looming referendum make it compulsory?
Did the earth move for you?
I’m writing this on the plane back from Iceland, a fact that fills me with relief. Not because I didn’t…
My Icelandic holiday with Kevin and Perry
I’m currently on holiday in Iceland. I say ‘holiday’, but I’m with my three teenage sons so it’s more like…
I failed my country at COP
I’m on my way to Glasgow for COP26. It’s the first time I have been abroad since before Covid. Conveniently…
The last of old England
Thomas Hennell is one of that generation of painters born in 1903 whose collective achievements are such an adornment of…
There’s something about dairy
You may be asking yourself: have I reached that point in lockdown where I’m watching Icelandic dramas about the price…
Iceland’s melting glaciers are nothing to panic about
Is Iceland on the global warming front line? You’d be forgiven for thinking so. We’ve all seen the documentaries where…
Why Britain, like Iceland, will thrive outside the EU
I have no doubt that Britain will thrive after leaving the EU, whether or not it leaves with a deal.…
For any politician spoiling for a fight over Ireland’s border, Under the Tree is required viewing
Every so often there’s a news story in which neighbours quarrel over rampaging leylandii. The police are summoned, the case…
Iceland’s national composer returns from oblivion
The lur is a horn, modelled in bronze after a number of 3,000-year-old instruments discovered at various archaeological sites across…
Radio 3 offers a refreshing antidote to the current conversations about Europe
The season of Advent, for most children, means anticipation, gleeful waiting, the counting down of days. But after a certain…
Diary
I never expected to visit Iceland, let alone play cricket there. But the Iceland national team was off to play…
Greedy greenies
‘We have a problem. Yes. At the wind farm.’ Any conspiracy thriller with lines like that has definitely got my…
Northern exposure
Some things I have learned about Iceland after watching six episodes of Trapped (BBC4, Saturdays). 1. They seem to feel…
Recent crime fiction
We fully expect con artists to be caught in a sting themselves, but even with that thought constantly in mind…
What Brexit looks like
Life outside the EU would be good for Britain
Europe’s ever-looser union
Europhiles have warned us for years of the dangers of Britain leaving the EU. But all the while a different…
Gods and fairytales
The rise of modern paganism – and the persistence of the real thing
Portrait of the Week
Home Theresa May, the Home Secretary, said that Britons who went to Syria or Iraq to fight could be stripped…
Diary
I made a welcome escape from sweltering Warsaw to the cloudy cool of Bodø, halfway up the coast of Norway,…
Let the elves do the work
As I sit here in my Sarah Lund Fair Isle sweater, polishing my boxed sets of Borgen and nibbling on…
