Jason Goodwin

Jason Goodwin's books of the year 2022

Our columnist Jason Goodwin shares the books that have entertained and enlightened him this year.

Jason Goodwin: I bought a 4lb cheese wrapped in goat skin that looked like a Moomin and brought it 2,500 miles back home. What could go wrong?

Our intrepid columnist goes the extra mile to bring a cave-aged Turkish delicacy back to England — only to run in to a group of guests who give him the distinct impression that they'd rather he hadn't bothered.

Jason Goodwin: 'It is up to each of us to keep our heads, do what is right and avoid evil'

A timely pilgrimage to Westminster Abbey sees Jason muse on the notions of sovereignty that haven't changed since the days of Solomon.

Jason Goodwin: 'The cats stayed on when the old occupants left, full of feline discretion, more like a whiff of perfume than an actual presence'

Jason Goodwin tells the sad tale of the cats that walked by themselves, almost up until the end.

Jason Goodwin: 'The very idea of stripes on a lawn made my German friend shudder'

Centrepiece of a classic English country garden, or bourgeois construct of the machine age? Our columnist Jason Goodwin takes aim at the lawn.

'Russia must be isolated. Utterly walled off,' said the Russian. 'When Putin falls, the new regime will be the same as the old'

Jason Goodwin heads east and meets an exiled Russian with an eye-opening perspective.

Jason Goodwin: The ruins 7,000 years older than Stonehenge which overthrow the way we think about our common past

If you're visiting somewhere extraordinary such as Göbekli Tepe, don't snap away on your phone — take a sketchbook. Jason Goodwin explains why.

Jason Goodwin: 'The older and wiser you get, the better you understand that a few good tools are better than a gallimaufry of clutter'

For this, and other words even more exotic than 'gallimaufry', read on.

Opinion: Why small family farms should be the future of agriculture in Britain

Many aspects of farming are expanding — and not always in a good way. Jason Goodwin argues that it needs re-balancing, with a return to multiple small family farms, neighbourly cooperation and a bolstering of the local community.

Jason Goodwin: 'Never has London looked so gilded and so monstrous'

Our columnist laments how, in his opinion, the 'slew of foreign cash and universal greed' has changed the capital — and not for the better.

Jason Goodwin: How to hold the biggest marmalade competition the world has ever seen in the teeth of a gale-force storm

Ahead of the storms which battered Britain a week or so ago, Jason Goodwin filed his dispatches from Dalemain, a beautiful Lake District stately home, where a rather unusual competition was taking place.

Jason Goodwin: 'We have enough stuff to last us for a generation. We are at Peak Gubbins. What we do not use and re-use gets plastered across beaches in the South China Seas'

As we head into February, Jason Goodwin looks back at the now-seemingly-distant Christmas festivities — and some deeply disturbing back-of-a-napkin calculations.

Jason Goodwin: 'The collie would come to the shed door for the smallest scrap of affection or touch. After a few months in the village we felt rather the same'

Our columnist Jason Goodwin on telepathic dogs, Pyrenean dialects and animal authors.

Jason Goodwin: 'No one ever quite knew if he was telling the truth and the story was too terrible either to investigate or disbelieve'

Does lightning really strike twice? Absolutely, but rarely in so chilling a manner as reported by our columnist Jason Goodwin.

Jason Goodwin: The £11 million grant that made my blood run cold (and why I needn't have worried)

A vast windfall for the Dorset Museum gave Jason Goodwin some sleepless nights — but he needn't have worried about the place losing its charm.

Jason Goodwin: My new life as a Swiss hotelier in the heart of Dorset

Our columnist Jason Goodwin muses on reincarnation, hospitality and broken windows.

Jason Goodwin: The eccentric millionaire who conned me into buying a dodgy potato peeler, and other tales of the unexpected

Jason Goodwin revels in unexpected revelations from friends and strangers.

16 top notch places to stop, just off the motorway

The summer holidays approach and, with them, the prospect of motorway hell. It doesn’t have to be that way, says Jason Goodwin, who presents his favourite civilised pitstops.

Jason Goodwin: 'I can’t think why anyone, man or bird, would want to travel abroad'

Jason Goodwin ponders the swallow's journey and Gilbert White's observations.

Jason Goodwin on why we all need 'a breath of fresh air'

Victorian received wisdom that fresh air is good for you turned out to be true, says Jason Goodwin.