My latest ex-pat dispatch from the Land of the Free concerns an outrageous impingement of, well, freedom - at least for those people who, like myself, are confessed espresso addicts.

While perusing the website of The Atlantic (to which I subscribe) I noticed that one of the top ten...

I was delighted to read last week's news that from 2016, Winston Churchill will be the new face of the fiver (five pound note, about $7.50, if you're reading this in the US).

Now, my reaction isn't surprising, given that I wrote a book about Sir Winston. But it...

Does partisanship know no bounds? Is it impossible for liberals and conservatives to see ambiguity? Can we focus on healing the wounded, instead of hurling hurtful words at ideological 'opponents'?

In the wake of the Boston bombing, I'm afraid to say the answer to all three questions is "No."

This week I had the pleasure of reading a well-crafted Wall Street Journal blog post by Pete Du Pont, in which he argues that President Barack Obama would do well to put Ronald Reagan's "peace through strength" mantra into practice.

But what of David Cameron and the...

This week marks the 67th anniversary of Winston Churchill's 'Iron Curtain' address (actually named 'The Sinews of Peace'), which he called "the most important speech of my career". And he'd given one or two of those.

Churchill's speech in the unlikely venue of Westminster College...

2012 held some pleasant aural surprises, both from established and new artists. When I'm writing, I can only listen to music without words, or the lyrics start appearing on the page like some sort of mind-control conspiracy. And when I'm not writing, I like listening to all manner of things,...

Classics: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Complete Sherlock Holmes (Heirloom Collection)

Prompted by my appreciation of the excellent trio of Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman and Andrew Scott in Sherlock, I began to search for a one-stop gathering of Arthur Conan Doyle's stories about the detective. Several years ago, Easton...

Two weeks ago I watched the final episode of Sherlock series two, The Reichenbach Fall. Much as I appreciate the talents of Benedict Cumberbatch, I was again blown away by the incendiary Andrew Scott as the fiendish James Moriaty.

The next morning, I spent an espresso-fueled few...

This week, David Cameron's speech to the Conservative Party Conference was billed as the headlining act. After all, he is prime minister. And he did very well, boldly communicating his vision for the party, how to build on current successes - such as the establishment of independent schools,...

In the next few weeks, we will see two countries vie for domination of the medals table at the London Olympics. The first, China, has more than one billion people, focuses on events such as weight lifting that have many medals up for grabs and puts its athletes into a...

Angela Merkel was once dubbed 'Frau Nein' for her refusal to be dragged into European policies that would over-extend Germany. Her strong leadership was compared by some to that of Margaret Thatcher, a new 'Iron Lady' for our fiscally turbulent times.

How things have changed. Merkel has...

Though I've lived in the American Midwest for almost 11 years, I am still surprised by how batty many Americans are when it comes to the Royal Family. I know several who got up at unholy-o'clock to watch the wedding of Kate and William, and Princess Di is still revered...

I am not a fast reader. So the fact that I finished all five books in David Downing's John Russell series in just over three weeks means that a) Zoo Station (book one) hooked me on the first page b) I made more time to read fiction that...

E-readers on the shelves at Waterstone's? Head for the hills, lovers of real books! Do not turn back, lest thee be turned into a pillar of salt.

OK, enough of my mock gravitas and Biblical allusions, though judging by the outrage across the blogosphere this week, many British...

RIP Maurice Sendak. The author/illustrator's unique gifts for visually representing the power of imagination, conveying rich experiences with brevity and balancing childlike wonder with the growing pains of youth will be sorely missed.

Though we've probably read Where the Wild Things Are together more than 100 times, my five-year-old...

May 8, 1945. London. Winston Churchill stands alongside King George VI and other members of the Royal Family on a Buckingham Palace balcony, waving to a crowd of thousands who've gathered to celebrate with him the fall of Germany, and victory in Europe.

For Churchill, this was...

On 2 April, 1982, Argentina invaded The Falkland Islands, believing it had a historical right to re-claim the British protectorate, against the will of its pro-British citizens. They overthrew the Governor, veteran diplomat Rex Hunt, exiling him to Uruguay, and overran Port Stanley. Would Britain let this slide? Not on...

If you've gotten past the Murdoch merry-go-round that has dominated newspaper front pages for the past few weeks, you'll likely have come across the kerfuffle about Mary Beard's new TV show, Meet the Romans, and, more specifically, TV critic AA Gill's mean-spirited comments about its host. And now, Ms. Samantha...