We can love only a beloved. For all the others, try courtesy | Simon Jenkins
Her hymn to love was beautiful, but Jeannette Winterson's mistake is to generalise this most specific of emotionsThe Guardian honoured Valentine's Day on Tuesday with a front page piece by Jeanette Winterson on love. It was a fine idea, given prominenc...
Christopher Hitchens: a fearless master-stylist and a pain in the neck | Simon Jenkins
Amid the noisome banality of wall-to-wall news, Hitchens proved passionate conviction and oratory could still draw a crowdChristopher Hitchens was a pain in the neck. When I last debated with him it was in New York. He stumbled late on stage to draw at...
Christmas is a shot of uncomplicated joy | Simon Jenkins
This break from the harsh rhythm of life offers an interlude when contact is re-established with neighbours, home and hearthMy Christmas favourite is Christmas itself, its lit streets and decorated homes; its food, songs and music. For me it holds no r...
Wild flowers are nature’s anarchists. Yet today even weeds must conform | Simon Jenkins
Plants have evolved their own class system. Those of the countryside are treasured, and those 'in the wrong place' villifiedWe all find solace in flowers. I go when times are hard to the wild dune church of Aberdaron in north Wales, where is pinned up ...
Great English Dates No 10: 1832
Why did the English not rise up in revolution like the French?The question that should dominate the history of England in the 19th century is why it saw no imitation of the French revolution. An election in 1830 was consumed by talk of political reform...
Great English dates No 9: 1759
As the French threatened colonies across the Atlantic and in India, the British fought back to secure the foundations of the British empireIf any date signals the foundation of the British empire, it is 1759. The seven years war of 1756-63 had begun in...
Great English dates No 8: 1688 – the Glorious Revolution
The Protestant William of Orange's seizure of the throne from the Catholic James II was blatant usurpation, but it settled once and for all the conflict between crown and parliamentThe 16th-century Reformation and 17th-century revolution can in retrosp...
Great English dates No 6: 1415
Agincourt is one of the most famous battles in English history, but the victory proved short-lived and marked the begining of the end of English ambitions in FranceOne of the greatest of English military victories was also the most senseless. As a batt...
Great English dates No 5: 1265
Simon de Montfort's parliament may have been short-lived, but it gave birth to an institution made up of lords and commonersWhen John died, the crown passed to the last person it needed, nine-year-old Henry III. His guardian, William Marshal, gathered ...
Great English dates: 1215
The 61-clause Magna Carta came about during the weak rule of King John and lies at the foundation of England's civil rightsThe offspring of William the Conqueror solidified the Norman hold on England. Henry I and Henry II, did so by their mastery of wa...
Great English dates: 1066
It's the most famous date in English history – the year of a bloody struggle for the crown that ended in William the Conqueror's victory at the Battle of HastingsThe year 1066 is the most celebrated in English history. To every schoolboy it was war b...
So, you think reason guides your politics? Think again | Simon Jenkins