Six of the Best 789

Mark Pack looks in more depth at the Lib Dems' local election performance last week: "the story is partly one of making progress against the government but finding it harder going against the main opposition party. That’s a familiar pattern from Liberal Democrat history."

Who needs Jordan Peterson when we have Ferdinand Mount? Ian Sansom celebrates an attractive Conservative thinker.

"Cosmetics and clothing played a key role in allowing queer men to identify each other in a society where same-sex relations were illegal." Carianne Whitworth on gay life and police persecution in 1930s London.

Owen Hatherley says developers' architecture too often forgets the value of public space.

"The film presents a collision between an ancient, rural way of life and the modern world, but manages to honour the people of both, repeatedly staging encounters where those on each side recognise a connection with the other and find something to respect." Eleanor Parker watches A Canterbury Tale.

Benton follows the footsteps of Richard Jefferies through Tolworth and provides a striking quote from the great man: "'Before a dandelion has shown in the meadow,' he remarks, 'the banks of the railway are yellow with coltsfoot.'"