Norman Balon was much more than ‘London’s rudest landlord’
Norman Balon, who has died at the age of 99, missed the point when he defined himself as ‘London’s rudest…
From Evelyn Waugh to Elizabeth Day, The Spectator’s enduring place in fiction
There are decades when The Spectator is shorthand for a trait: sex (2000s), young fogeys (1980s), free trade (1900s). But…
The Spectator’s 2025 Christmas quiz
Events, dear boy In 2025: 1. Name the singer of ‘(Everything I Do) I Do It for You’ whose concert…
Typos are an unintentional delight
Afriend of mine was once delighted to get a job at the Radio Times, where he ‘corrected’ a golfing picture…
A church service with the Chaldeans of West Acton
I joined the Chaldeans in church on the morning after the night that the rebels in Syria took control of…
The Spectator’s 2024 Christmas quiz
Events, dear boy In 2024: 1. Twenty-two tons of what were stolen from Neal’s Yard in London? 2. Down…
Carols are much weirder than we think
Why, my sharp-minded colleague Tom Utley once asked after a Telegraph Christmas Carol service, should anyone think God would abhor…
An ode to lamplighting
I was growing impatient with a recent blog by Sam Altman, who runs OpenAI, promising progress, universal prosperity, ‘a space…
A connoisseur’s guide to collecting matchboxes
We’d been told it would be a ‘brat’ summer, characterised by its inventor, the singer Charli XCX, as ‘a pack…
The fight to save an ancient City synagogue from developers
There was a little number, 223, pasted onto the back of one of the centuries-old wooden seats in Bevis Marks…
The Spectator’s 2023 Christmas quiz
Fairly odd 1. What had for 50 years been the name for Fanta Pineapple & Grapefruit before it was changed…
How to speak London
Cockney is dead, but so is the King’s English. Long live Standard Southern British English. The Cockney Barbara Windsor yelling…
From the ashes
The surprising beauty of Mass in a burnt-out church
Stranger things
Christopher Howse on the transformative power of folk costume
Close harmony
Handel’s Messiah is as much a Christmas tradition as pantomime
Christmas Quiz
Verbals In 2022, who said: 1. Them’s the breaks. 2. I know that we will deliver, we will deliver, we…
Signatures
I have a photograph of Queen Elizabeth II and her parents on the wall of my bathroom, not out of…
Send off
The joys of editing a newspaper letters page
Dark side of the rune
In Rus, which we now call Ukraine, Amleth (Alexander Skarsgard) begins his pursuit of revenge. A sea captain who later…
Unholy war
The destruction of Ukraine’s churches
Everything under the sun
Christopher Howse is bowled over by the astonishingartefacts in the British Museum’s Stonehenge exhibition
Brambles, buttress, sky
The tiny charity that saves derelict churches from destruction
Christmas quiz
Set by Christopher Howse. Illustrated by Castro
