Comment & Opinion

Curious Questions: How likely are you to be killed by a falling coconut?

Our resident curious questioner Martin Fone poses (and answers) another head scratcher - or should we say, head banger?

Jason Goodwin: 'In those days, the French government seemed to use sugar wrappers to effect social change'

Jason Goodwin speaks of collections – from stamps and bus tickets to sugar packets and mushrooms.

Curious Questions: Should animals wear clothes?

Martin Fone, decidedly not an animal person, ponders whether animals should wear clothes and, indeed, what a stylish pet would wear in the case that they do.

Jason Goodwin: 'Insofar as anything made of stainless steel can be considered a member of the family, I loved that pan like a brother'

Our spectator columnist Jason Goodwin dons his cape and ventures off to save the planet, one lifetime guarantee frying pan at a time.

Jason Goodwin: 'In Yorkshire he spat on them, down south he peed, either way, they aren’t good eating'

Jason Goodwin: 'Coleridge never stopped talking... Wordsworth was more private, more reflective, and finally, more successful'

Jason Goodwin remarks on how tracking one's pet past the boundaries of one's home is comparable to Coleridge's 'This Lime-tree Bower My Prison'.

Curious Questions: Has there ever been a more disturbing time in British politics?

We're constantly being told that the division, anger and uncertainty we're currently witnessing in British politics is 'unprecedented'. But insanity, strife and hare-brained scheming are nothing new at Westminster — and things have often been far worse. Jacqueline Riding looks at an example from 200 years ago which serves as a chilling warning that we must all help to stop things from escalating still further.

Love in the Countryside's rocky road to rural romance: Sheep-herding tests, awkward cider farm dates and being dumped by a Shetland pony

Forget Tinder, BBC Two's Love in the Countryside is the farmer's answer to cupid. Rachael Turner reports.

Jason Goodwin: 'All he had to do is walk along the same street in his mind and sing out the objects as they cropped up'

Curious Questions: Dirty cash, filthy lucre... but how mucky is our money?

Martin Fone ponders another Curious Question, and comes away thinking that perhaps it's time for us to start money laundering in a very literal sense.

Jason Goodwin: The unbeatable 10-minute, £10 haircut — and who cares what it looks like at the end?

More speed, less fuss. What more could you ask for from a barber, asks Jason Goodwin.

Jason Goodwin: Is the answer to finding faith really as simple as "fake it 'til you make it"?

The ancient Ottomans knew the power of repetition to shape the minds of others — something that Jason Good has discovered for himself.

Jason Goodwin: 'The flock widened and contracted, filling the whole sky with motion: expansive, pure theatre'

Our spectator columnist comments on the end of summer, as murmurations of wheeling and diving birds herald the beginning of a new season.

Jason Goodwin: How Jason's new and improved, curry-based hospital menu will save the NHS millions

'If chicken tikka masala is our national dish and the nation’s health matters, we should be proud to serve its milder, healthier cousins in our National Health Service.'

Curious Questions: Why do we talk about the '$64,000 question' — even in a country where we don't use dollars?

A question about a question? Absolutely. Martin Fone gets to the bottom of where this curious phrase originates — and how it even found its way across the Atlantic.

Jason Goodwin: Mysterious beach bones, lively ceilidhs and the other wonders of holidaying in the Western Isles

Jason Goodwin: The dark, chilly undercurrents in the seemingly-idyllic life of the English village

Jason Goodwin was feeling decidedly nostalgic for village life — until he had a run-in with one of its discontents.

Jason Goodwin: Rome's Bus 64, the Baby Toss Scam and other crooked dealings to look forward to on holiday

Jason Goodwin praises the finesse of con-artists and pickpockets as one of the things he misses most, having decided to holiday at home this year.

Jason Goodwin: Forget what you were told at school — history is simply a cracking story that happens to be true

The education system did its best to put Jason Goodwin off history, but he came through unscathed — and thank goodness too, otherwise he might not have been able to recommend these summer reads.

Curious Questions: Is kissing good for you?

Annunciata Elwes asks the question on everyone's lips.