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In his monthly column, John Mitchinson explores how a country house party in Oxfordshire helped invent democracy
In his monthly column, John Mitchinson reflects on why the old lettuce leaf is not so dull (Liz Truss aside)
John Mitchinson explores why he chooses to raise and then consume man’s second best friend
In his monthly column, John Mitchinson explores why we should be listening to the honey bees
In his monthly column, John Mitchinson remembers the original social justice warrior
John Mitchinson explores how a 600-year-old poem by an unknown poet can reset our moral compass
To sit and listen to a nightingale is to be transported to somewhere that is both quintessentially English but also impossibly rich and exotic, writes John Mitchinson
John Mitchinson explores why are we so fascinated by the odious, uncancellable, Mr Punch
John Mitchinson explores why perception is as much about what we know as what we see
John Mitchinson explores how the lessons of the Crimean War still resonate today
John Mitchinson explores why the dark and mysterious yew tree is a symbol of both life and death
John Mitchinson explores the attributes of the character that long pre-dates ‘Santa Claus’
John Mitchinson reflects on why the life of Saint Cuthbert still has important things to teach us
John Mitchinson on why Shakespeare’s most problematic play still has plenty to teach us
John Mitchinson reflects on what he learned about the ‘baffling presence of absence’ when his father died in his arms
John Mitchinson explores why we need to spend a third of our life asleep
For this month’s column, John Mitchinson pens a personal reflection on why knowing about what kills us makes it no less mysterious
John Mitchinson explores what the novelist behind a 1759 masterpiece can teach us about the importance of marketing as a publisher
John Mitchinson explores a presence not a character, lurking on the edge of our technology-addled consciousness…
It’s not hard to see how the evolution of cooperation and the evolution of language are mutually reinforcing, writes John Mitchinson
Perhaps it is the atavistic fear of something growing inside us and consuming us from within that makes us feel so ambivalent towards fungi, writes John Mitchinson
John Mitchinson explores the lasting impact of a controversial American study steeped in the institutional racism which continues to permeate the country today
The longer we look at this traditional music, the more we see that its very malleability is its strength and its challenge, writes John Mitchinson
John Mitchinson explores the enduring relevance of the “little Christmas book” the author penned in 1843
John Mitchinson explores how our brains reflect our lives not our genitals John Gray’s Men are from Mars, Women are From Venus was the highest-selling non-fiction title of the 1990s. With sales of over 15 million copies across 40 languages, it created its own publishing ecosystem: Why Men Don’t Listen and Women Can’t Read Maps;…
John Mitchinson explores the diversity within the fruit of knowledge
Warbling, tweeting, courting, teaching – John Mitchinson explores the ever-deepening mystery of birdsong
John Mitchinson lifts the lid on why the Luddites weren’t really ‘Luddite’
John Mitchinson explores a surprisingly modern role model from the backstreets of Jacobean London
John Mitchinson explores why we are hardwired to remember the past, with memories that are made in the moment
John Mitchinson reflects on his latest trip to the ‘Big Easy’
John Mitchinson explores the enduring fascination with the man who was asked to send Jesus to his death
John Mitchinson explores how the horrors of the Holodomor still underpin Ukrainian identity
John Mitchinson explores why our closest cousins were wrongly defamed as boorish, rude stupid louts
John Mitchinson explains why gazing out of his window or at his computer screen brings him wonderment at an invention we spend little time observing
John Mitchinson explains why our relationship with these fascinating creatures is such a depressing one
If humans can’t yet hibernate, could we approach something like the ‘torpor’ that bears and other larger mammals practice? asks John Mitchinson
With emails, text messages and WhatsApp groups now a dominant feature of all our lives, John Mitchinson considers the enduring qualities of a more humble form of social communication
John Mitchinson explores the lessons in the inventor, philosopher and mathematician’s ‘doing more with less’ philosophy
John Mitchinson makes the case for those who have lived and died by their own rules, flying in the face of conventionality
John Mitchinson charts a brief history of British food and the emergence of a humble meal enjoyed billions of times each year
John Mitchinson unearths some of the juiciest incidents turning the gossip mills of times past
John Mitchinson explains why we should listen to the farmers and why their plight deserves our attention