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Tennis comes home during an English summer heatwave
For one more time, for one last time: 10 memorable pieces from my editorship, 2008-2024, essays, commentary, poetry, fiction, interviews
Sometimes you encounter, however fleetingly, someone who leaves a deep impression
Jason Cowley talks about his book Who Are We Now? Stories of Modern England, which explores the turbulent politics of the last 25 years, from Tony Blair to the pandemic
In this compelling and essential book, Jason Cowley examines contemporary England through a handful of the key news stories of recent times to reveal what they tell us about the state of the nation and to answer the question Who Are We Now?
Jason Cowley’s wonderfully written, magisterial dive into the modern history of English politics and identity
Julian Coman on a subtle, sophisticated book about the condition of England
Why 1989 was the hinge year in English football’s modernisation
As a young child he escaped the Nazis on one of the Kindertransport trains and was perhaps the last great emigre publisher in London
How a former hippy hangout in a remote outpost transformed wine-making in Australia
As the ragga music blared and the tills rang at the open-air bars in Rodney Bay, Jason Cowley bumped into New Zealand and England cricketers intent on a good night out. Then the World Cup darkened into tragedy
After the match, his final defeat as England manager, Sven-Goran Eriksson seemed somehow reduced and much smaller as he prepared to take questions from his tormentors in the press.
The playmaker sometimes seems to be playing a game beyond his peers
Last weekend, Arsenal played their final league match at Highbury, an occasion that was at once a celebration and a long goodbye. No one seemed to be living more intensely through those last moments at the venerable stadium in north London than Arsène Wenger.
The Arsenal captain’s on-off move to Real Madrid last summer led to a season of frustration and lost form. What does he want now as he approaches the end of his time in London?
In March 2005, Jason Cowley travelled to New York to meet David Sylvian for an article published in the Observer on 10 April. Their conversation continued over email.
Apartheid, not the ruling regime, brought race into South African cricket
How the mysterious Fijian became the world’s best golfer
It was a fortnight of tears in Athens, writes Jason Cowley. Matthew Pinsent wept with joy; Hicham El Guerrouj collapsed in tears after breaking his Olympic hoodoo in the 1,500m; and, of course, there was Paula Radcliffe, her hopes dashed on the road from Marathon.
After a stellar career on the track - and an equally speedy rise in politics - Sebastian Coe now heads London’s bid for the 2012 Olympics. But with his team lying third on the last lap, can he once again kick to the finish?
Cricket in Zimbabwe has no future because it is almost wholly a white game, writes Jason Cowley.
Waugh is over: in praise of the Australian captain who transformed Test cricket
Cast out by the cricket establishment, cursed by failed relationships and traumatised by the death of his mother - how the former England cricketer became the nation’s favourite Jack-the-lad
He spent his final days in the second XI. Yet Robert Bailey was a hero. By Jason Cowley.
That World Cup win and that swinging summer created a benchmark against which we will always be measured, and always found wanting.