In New York, crossing 58th Street from the Plaza Oyster Bar to the Wyndham Hotel, I came up against a huge black man in a long, dark overcoat who said, in deep and threatening tones, 'Give me fifty dollars!' I managed to ask him if he would be content with thirty-five and, rather to my surprise, he said, 'All right, give me thirty-five dollars!' And so the deal was done.

Jewish custom, which traces descent solely from the mother, is more sensible and more discreet. Our own lawgivers can't accept the fact that there are many thi…

It's tempting to wonder how many of the inventions of the past century we might have been better off without. Take the aeroplane for instance. It has transform…

Are people naturally destructive, immoral, predatory and self-seeking, only to be kept in order by harsh laws and fiercely deterrent mandatory sentences? Or ar…

'I don't keer w'at you do wid me, Brer Fox,' sezee, 'so you don't fling me in dat brier-patch. Roas' me, Brer Fox' sezee, 'but don't fling me in dat brier-patc…

Please - please don't kill me - I don't want to die. I just want to have my baby.

Once ... in the wilds of Afghanistan, I lost my corkscrew, and we were forced to live on nothing but food and water for days.