Sam Leith

I blame Charles Dickens, personally: he of David Copperfield, Little Nell, Oliver Twist and, of course, Tiny Tim. He's the father of what you might call the orphan-industrial complex, which is to say, the discovery that there is a fantastic amount of money to be made out of the sentimental feelings aroused in the well-heeled and tender-hearted by waifs in general and orphans in particular. It has taken more than a century for the orphan-industrial complex to reach its final form, but I think we're there.

The Virago Book of Friendship edited by Rachel Cooke Virago, pp.388, 18.99

Labour MP Tulip Siddiq’s aunty is Sheikh Hasina, former prime minister of Bangladesh. Their connection is coming under growing scrutiny

With Christmas only just gone, I hope it’s not too late to recommend Ingvild Rishoi’s bittersweet seasonal novella – a bestseller in Norway which now comes into English in Caroline Waight’s crisp and…

Imagine a world in which a cabal of extreme libertarian oligarchs operated with complete impunity. In which they did what they liked on a private island outside the reach of the law, operated a uniformed militia, and saw ordinary people as subhuman “trash” whose struggles for survival only have value as a resource for the entertainment of the bored overclass.

Imagine a world in which a cabal of extreme libertarian oligarchs operated with complete impunity.

Former Number 10 special advisor Dominic Cummings has been accused of plotting to sabotage UK politics with Elon Musk

Former Number 10 special advisor Dominic Cummings has been accused of plotting with Elon Musk (Getty images)

Trump was a populist-nationalist who rode to power by digital means; now he's a cheerleader for the transnational digital oligarchy.

Grade: A The original Monument Valley was a handheld puzzle game of beautiful design and high originality. Why it was called that I have no idea: the title suggests a desert landscape of red dust and sand-scoured buttes, but the playspace was a series of architectural arabesques hanging in space, around which the player navigated