On April 28 1986, the radiation detector at Forsmark Nuclear Power Station in Sweden would not stop going off Then tests revealed something terrible had happened But not in Sweden 40 years on, here is the story of Chernobyl (Paywall free) www.thetimes.com/article/4b9c...

On April 28 1986, the radiation detector at Forsmark Nuclear Power Station in Sweden would not stop going off Then tests revealed something terrible had happened But not in Sweden 40 years on, here is the story of Chernobyl (Paywall free) www.thetimes.com/article/4b9c...

Chernobyl - 40 years on Our graphic explainer of the disaster is here And it is NOT paywalled What happened at Chernobyl: how the disaster unfolded 40 years ago www.thetimes.com/article/4b9c...

It is 40 years since the Chernobyl disaster @thetimes.com takes you inside the worst nuclear disaster in history And how a cover-up endangered countless lives www.thetimes.com/article/4b9c...

It is 40 years since the Chernobyl disaster @thetimes.com takes you inside the worst nuclear disaster in history And how a cover-up endangered countless lives www.thetimes.com/article/4b9c...

Just had the nicest email about this piece from a reader who said “The beauty of our cathedrals surely lies in their huge spaces, carved not just out of the earth under our feet but also from the sky above - containing features most of us will never see due to their height.”

Raising a very particular mug to #ShakespeareDay

Politicians just seem to have given up trying to explain the world as it is to people. It's a huge problem.

So delighted to hear that our piece last August on the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki has won an award for excellence from the Society for News Design Huge credit to the team who realised this project so brilliantly! www.thetimes.com/article/e3d6...

Why is St Andrew’s Day never filled with tedious people going “He was Galilean actually”?

Yesterday, I touched the ceiling of Westminster Abbey. Essential work is being carried out on these most rarefied of heights for the first time in 61 years. Affording the most spectacular view of the nation’s spiritual heart. My piece in today’s The Times www.thetimes.com/article/7ddd...

Yesterday, I touched the ceiling of Westminster Abbey. Essential work is being carried out on these most rarefied of heights for the first time in 61 years. Affording the most spectacular view of the nation’s spiritual heart. My piece in today’s The Times www.thetimes.com/article/7ddd...

Day off. Time for a luxuriant shower. Just as I was enjoying a moment of peace after a weekend of solo parenting… a knock on the bathroom door. Mrs B has forgotten that the window cleaner was coming and I had but seconds left before I ended up in my own George Formby song.

I feel the word “unite” is here being subjected to a burden it cannot reasonably be expected to bear

Jesus wept.

My two year-old just opened up The Gruffalo and said “The Gruffalo, by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler!” I thought he was a reading savant until he added “Read by Imelda Staunton”

Tory MPs decline proposition of “summer of sex” In my @thetimes.com diary this morning

Home was where the Bard was - location of Shakespeare’s London house had been found Me in @thetimes www.thetimes.com/article/862c...

Just saw Dracula’s Deliveroo

Is it Swalwell that Ends Well?

Two years ago today. Missed every day.

The Queen’s advice to Liz Truss: “Take your time” In my @thetimes.com Diary this morning

Look, this is a grey squirrel of a solecism and I hate it. The correct expression is ALL MOUTH AND TROUSERS, implying front, bravado, brashness with nothing of substance within. The needful idiom here is ALL GONG AND NO DINNER. Something that promises much but delivers nothing.

Marco Rubio realising he has to move to Avignon and be the Antipope

Marco Rubio realising he has to move to Avignon and be the Antipope

Brits going to bed tonight

You may not like it, but this is what the language of a master deal maker who is totally on top of the situation looks like

You: Christ is risen Political Twitter: Pressures rises on Pilate’s defence spending after corpse evades two soldiers LinkedIn: Jesus has executed a rebound recovery and is looking at rebranding opportunities

I’ve just noticed that the label on my lactose-intolerance pills says that they’re vegan Which seems a bit superfluous

Britain is broken, you say? Well today I passed a man who was holding up traffic by riding a penny-farthing on an A-road. He was dressed in a long coat, wore a deerstalker and was smoking a pipe. We are so back.

The next moon landing is planned for 2028, meaning man will only have walked on the moon under the presidencies of Trump and Nixon. In this paper, I will discuss the relationship between moon landings and impeachments…

Terrible to see the demise of the monarch’s Easter message - a venerable tradition which has been held just three times since its inception in 2020

This is why we now have selfie sticks

No spoilers but the actual final, final bit of Last One Laughing is spectacular

Seven years since I joined the staff at @thetimes.com and one year since I took the helm of the Diary. The column is going from strength to strength. Thanks to all the readers, old and new.

Think I might just - for reasons - quote my own book.

Seven years since I joined the staff at @thetimes.com and one year since I took the helm of the Diary. The column is going from strength to strength. Thanks to all the readers, old and new.

After half a century, the Beatles have firmly buried the hatchet with Apple Computers Paul McCartney is playing at the company’s 50th birthday party

A lovely story about filming with the Queen and James Bond for the Olympics in today’s @thetimes.com Diary She had strong opinions on the sketch

Is he going to sign them as Amanda Dumwumple, as he signs everything else?

A Kazakh dictator said: “Steady on mate”.

What will Zack Polanski bring to Westminster? By the looks of things… prickliness Me in today’s @thetimes.com Diary

This story generated a dangerous idea in the comments section

Particularly fond of this Prince Philip story in today’s Times Diary

How @jonsopel1.bsky.social had more trouble with his expenses then he did with the Taliban In this morning’s @thetimes.com Diary

How @jonsopel1.bsky.social had more trouble with his expenses then he did with the Taliban In this morning’s @thetimes.com Diary

Particularly fond of this Prince Philip story in today’s Times Diary

Reform’s MPs are beginning to look a little bit squished in their corner of Commons. These are the consequences of their allowing vast amounts of net migration.