Geoffrey Wheatcroft

The globalization of soccer has distanced players from national fan bases—which is why the World Cup provokes such identity crises

When he came to office, the Prime Minister seemed another JFK. Now his mystique is dissipated and his promise shattered. The chief cause of his failure is the war in Iraq—a war he led his people into against their will, for reasons that were not true

Oscar Wilde cannot be simplified into an Irish rebel, a subversive socialist, or a gay martyr

The conflict between two eternal Irish types

On George Orwell, World Cup soccer, and the Queen

V. S. Naipaul is certainly no liberal—and herein lies his importance

The recent election of the party's new leader is the surprising result of four decades of reform

Auberon Waugh, the acerbic British man of letters, died in January. Our author remembers him and reflects on Waugh's complex, heartbreaking relationship with his father, Evelyn

An Englishman tours historic battlefields in Massachusetts and New York

The British Broadcasting Corporation is having a hard time living up to its past. But what a past! Our correspondent reviews its history, seeking the roots of its present troubles