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2 months ago | 
the-tls.co.uk | Jonathan Egid |A. N. Wilson |Barnaby Rogerson |Peter Geoghegan
In the shadow of St Peter’s Basilica, across the piazza degli scalpellini, or “square of the stonecutters”, lies another, more ancient structure. Dedicated to the first Christian martyr, the monastery of Santo Stefano is one of the few structures in the Vatican to have survived the demolition of the old St Peter’s and the construction of the domed behemoth.
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Jan 9, 2025 | 
thespectator.com | Ed West |Brian Martin |Roger Kimball |Barnaby Rogerson
I visited Mycenae for the first time this autumn. While the ruins of classical Athens can seem almost familiar, the ancient hillfort of a millennia earlier truly feels as though it belongs to the world of gods and heroes, of Homer and the Trojan War. If my imagination hadn’t been destroyed by decades of television, I could almost imagine myself there.
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Jan 8, 2025 | 
the-tls.co.uk | Barnaby Rogerson
Welcome to the TLSWinner of the 2024 Niche Market Newspaper of the Year Award and proudly niche since 1902.
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May 9, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Tatyana Kekic |Ross Anderson |Amber Athey |Barnaby Rogerson
Thousands of Serbs gathered outside the Palace of Serbia Wednesday to welcome the Chinese president Xi Jinping, chanting “China, Serbia.” Addressing the audience, Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vučić thanked Xi for choosing to visit Serbia: “We are writing history today… [Xi] hasn’t come to Europe in five years and he has again chosen our little Serbia.”The visit has been choreographed to coincide with the twenty-fifth anniversary of NATO’s bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in 1999.
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May 8, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Ross Anderson |Amber Athey |Barnaby Rogerson |Freddy Gray
President Joe Biden has been straddling an incredibly thin line when it comes to his stance on the Israel-Gaza conflict.
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May 8, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Ross Anderson |Amber Athey |Barnaby Rogerson |Freddy Gray
On Monday night, celebrities, designers and the highest edges of New York’s upper crust attended the biggest party of the fashion calendar, the Met Gala. Given its supposed importance, you’d think the looks would always be fantastic; that it would be a night for designers to compete for the best, most creative, most glamorous couture. The reality is a lot more disappointing.
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May 8, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Barnaby Rogerson |Amber Athey |Freddy Gray |Alexander Larman
Poetry is politics in the Yemen. When the last imam of Yemen, who was also the hereditary ruler, was deposed in a coup in 1962, it was a local poet who announced the change of regime on the radio, in verse of course. And the current al-Houthi regime in the north of the country, like all its predecessors, asserts its legitimacy, confounds its enemies and rallies its supporters through poetry.
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Apr 16, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Lionel Shriver |Barnaby Rogerson
The theme of this month’s edition is technology. The advancement of space exploration, defense technologies, artificial intelligence and the like should excite us. Yet the geopolitical issues they present are great and Western governments seem ill-prepared to grapple with them. Watch any congressional hearing where a crusty congressman tries to keep pace with Silicon Valley’s top autists if you need further evidence — and read Spencer A.
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Jan 31, 2024 | 
spectator.co.uk | Barnaby Rogerson
Poetry is politics in the Yemen. When the last Imam of Yemen, who was also the hereditary ruler, was deposed in a coup in 1962, it was a local poet who announced the change of regime on the radio, in verse of course. And the current al-Houthi regime in the north of the country, like all its predecessors, asserts its legitimacy, confounds its enemies and rallies its supporters through poetry.
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Jan 31, 2024 | 
literaryreview.co.uk | Barnaby Rogerson
Barnaby Rogerson’s new book has come along at precisely the right time. The House Divided, a vast history of the Sunni–Shia divide, is a balanced, sweeping, hugely ambitious work that delves into the long and tangled roots of the modern Middle East. Rogerson examines both what divides Sunni, followers of the ‘way’ of Muhammad, and Shia, devoted to Ali, the Prophet Muhammad’s son-in-law, and what binds them. It is also a study of geopolitics, history and how societies and empires rise and fall.
