Back in the olden days, the Salvation Army – and other temperance campaigners – used to frequent public houses and music halls, trying to tempt imbibers away from over-indulging in the demon drink…

Anna Margaret Haycraft (1932-2005), known to her readers as Alice Thomas Ellis, was a journalist, novelist, painter, Catholic polemicist, cookery book writer, fiction editor, mother of seven and a member of the Gloucester Crescent literary milieu…

Twenty-five years after Soviet totalitarianism was thrown on the ash heap of history, with the dissolution of the evil empire itself, the world is witnessing in Venezuela the reprise of a familiar Cold War drama – the courageous cardinal defying a corrupt communist regime…

If you want to see an electrifying new play that features a mercurial performance by Paddy Considine as a reformed IRA activist and has a tortured Irish priest who is as conflicted and anguished as any creation by Graham Greene, then make sure you get to see Jez Butterworth’s The Ferryman at the Gielgud Theatre…

The seven Catholic priests who walked into a bar and were initially turned away by staff, who thought they were members of a stag party, have done more for the image of the Church than a hundred popes…

When having my hair cut, I like the barber to get on with the job and let me go home as quickly as possible…