An undated photo of novelist Charles Dickens Dec 23, 2011

Great contradictions

Radical, romantic, mythmaker – as his bicentenary nears, Charles Dickens still presents many faces to biographers. By Henry Hitchings

Jay Z Speaking Dec 16, 2011

Rapping and rolling in it

Ed Crooks on how commercial success has propelled hip-hop’s superstars into the US business elite

Algerian women on their way to voting stations Dec 9, 2011

Algeria and the Arab spring

Why has this major north African nation resisted the wave of uprisings? The answer, says Tony Barber, lies in the exceptional brutality of its colonial past

David Hockney Getty Jackie Wullschlager Dec 2, 2011

All about David Hockney

Attempts to fix the artist’s place in history coincide with a Royal Academy exhibition of his work

An illustration of elephants Nov 18, 2011

Nudge thyself

Economists have rather more to learn from the natural sciences if they are to claim a realistic model of human behaviour

Barack Obama with Bill Clinton Nov 12, 2011

Presidential adviser

It is hard not to read Bill Clinton’s manifesto for US revival as an implied rebuke to Barack Obama, writes the FT’s chief US commentator Ed Luce

Christopher Hitchens Sep 23, 2011

Christopher Hitchens’ war on error

The author’s fierce certainties make for fine polemic but often obscure reality. Jason Cowley reviews his memoirs

Highlights