Huddles of street smokers outside office doorways could be extinguished under new public health plans. But it could also be the end to the comradeship of pavement puffers.
Continue Reading Add comment February 2nd, 2010
There are few more visceral mindgames for the competitor than swordplay, whose conventions and violent history seem so far removed from modern life.
Continue Reading Add comment January 23rd, 2010
Climate naysayers sent out a collective whoop of delight. E-mails hacked from the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit had proved that the theory of man-made climate change was a scientific conspiracy.
Continue Reading Add comment December 17th, 2009
Climate scientists are like an exotic tribe – fascinating, sometimes hard to understand and rarely visited.
Continue Reading Add comment November 21st, 2009
Born and raised in Britain, Ben Freeth has become one of a handful of farmers in Zimbabwe to resist the seizure of his land.
Continue Reading October 21st, 2009
It’s a paradox that would bother Lord Reith or William Russell were they alive today.
Continue Reading Add comment October 3rd, 2009
It’s 10 years since the death of Alan Clark – a politician who found distinction in his diary style, if not his career.
Continue Reading Add comment September 9th, 2009
A mile and a half across the bay, lies the prize of San Francisco – a thicket of skyscrapers shimmering in the early morning haze.
Continue Reading Add comment August 16th, 2009
It’s a month since the death of Michael Jackson – an event which triggered much worshipful coverage of the singer’s life. When can you speak ill of the dead?
Continue Reading Add comment July 27th, 2009
The indoor swimming pool was a child of the industrial revolution
Continue Reading Add comment March 28th, 2009
Tom de Castella is a freelance journalist and writer based in London, UK.
To get in touch please email tomdecastella@yahoo.com