You should feel disappointed if you don’t get into Oxbridge
When I was at Magdalen College, Oxford, in the early 1990s, I’d often read ‘Bogsheets’ in the loos by the…
The Roman roots of the Dulwich Wood Penis Gang
If you go down to the woods today, you’re sure of a big surprise… in Dulwich Wood – a charming…
All human life – and death – is here: the British parish church
As a skilled stonemason, Andrew Ziminski has dug deep into the fabric of countless churches and can explain every conceivable aspect, from baptismal fonts to gravestones
No wonder the National Trust is bowing to climate activists
Just like the Anglo-Saxons disastrously paying off the Viking marauders with Danegeld, so the National Trust has attempted to do…
Why does the National Trust hate itself so much?
In its latest bout of self-hatred, the National Trust has declared that ‘people from the global majority are widely under-represented…
When John Lennon took on Barry Humphries
Barry Humphries would have been 90 on 17 February. To commemorate his life, Radio 4 is broadcasting Barry Humphries: Gloriously…
The grim life of a Roman legionary
Over the heather the wet wind blows, I’ve lice in my tunic and a cold in my nose. The rain…
Starmer is wrong to defend the National Trust
Keir Starmer is drawing up his battle-lines for the next election. First, he came for the public schools, pledging to…
In defence of Eton’s Provost
The world divides into two groups. Those who liked school and those who didn’t. Sir Nicholas Coleridge, the next Provost of…
Women are obsessed with the Romans, too
It’s not only men who are obsessed with the Romans
Gentle genius
Dissatisfied with his unfinished epic, the dying Vergil called for his scrolls to be burned, but was fortunately overruled by the Emperor Augustus
Why some men are obsessed with the Roman Empire
Why do men think about the Roman Empire so much? That’s the subject of a new social media trend, where…
‘She had no neutral gear’: Lindy Dufferin remembered
In 1957, when my dear godmother, the Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava (1941-2020), was 16, she began her diary. The…
The lewdness and lyricism of ancient Roman graffiti
The lewdness and lyricism of ancient Roman graffiti
Fellowship of the Lamb: how we’re saving Tolkien’s pub
How a group of regulars are saving Tolkien’s pub
Who is David Sherborne, libel lawyer to the stars?
If you’re a celeb with a burning grievance, the hottest place in town is an unassuming, Georgian terraced house in…
The problem with rewilding
The government has gone wild. Under new plans, just announced by Environment Secretary George Eustice, farmers and landowners in England could…
The battle for the soul of the National Trust
Yesterday, at the Trust’s AGM, Restore Trust – the body which wants to stop the dumbing-down and politicisation of the…
Why is the National Trust waging war against its members?
The National Trust culture war has just stepped up a gear. Ahead of the Trust’s AGM on 30 October, the…
End of the line: it’s time to rethink the queue
It’s time to rethink the queue
The strange allure of double agents
John le Carré, the master of British spy stories, may have died last December, aged 89. But the dastardly world…
They weren’t all that pious in the good old days
You need to be wary of being too flattering about English churches. As John Betjeman said: ‘Be careful before you…
In our narcissistic age, nothing beats good manners
Why rudeness doesn’t pay
