The negligence of ‘not in my lifetime’
It is sometimes said, correctly, that conservatism is more an attitude than an ideology. And for me there have always…
At sea
Can Rishi Sunak navigate the migrant crisis?
Long live the Kaiser
Inside Germany’s extreme monarchist movement
Literal tyranny
How a silly little bit of satire got me sacked
‘Let them contribute’
Former justice secretary Robert Buckland on the asylum crisis
The Spectator’s Notes
Greta Thunberg said, in a newspaper interview, that Cop27 is a ‘scam’ for ‘greenwashing, lying and cheating’. Then she said…
Theme of despair
Chessington World of Adventures sits in a bowl near the A3. I went in the 1970s when it was a…
A matter of life and death
Living is a remake of one of the great existential masterpieces of the 20th century, Kurosawa’s Ikiru (1952), which didn’t…
France à la Russe
Fleeing the revolution and forced to scrape a living as taxi drivers and seamstresses, the exiles were generally a melancholy crowd, united by mutual loathing
‘I can see myself in others’
Greil Marcus chooses seven celebrated songs, ranging from the 1960s to the present, to explore the diverse sources of Dylan’s inspiration
Vatican II has always been seriously misunderstood
People no longer moan about most of the things that bothered them during my childhood. You don’t hear old folk…
In the realms of the unreal
‘To my mind,’ Renoir once wrote, ‘a picture should be something pleasant, cheerful and pretty. There are too many unpleasant…
The ultimate cool guy
Paul Newman explains at the beginning how this book came about: ‘I want to leave some kind of record that…
Perturbed spirits
Thrice nominated for the International Booker prize, the Argentine author Samanta Schweblin is part of a wave of Latin American…
Plantagenet wives
Alison Weir’s study of five Plantagenet queens is dominated by Isabella, the wife of Edward II, whose vengefulness led to the Hundred Years’ War
What to do about the Equality Act
Among people of a conservative disposition, it’s long been accepted that the Equality Act needs to be repealed. This legislation,…
Blisters and squelch
Raynor Winn’s first book, The Salt Path, was a genuine phenomenon. Having been evicted from their farm after 20 years,…
The future of sport is in the Middle East
When the burly honchos of the Rugby League World Cup gushed about taking the game to new heights, no one…
