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…
From cradle to grave
You need to be wary of being too flattering about English churches. As John Betjeman said: ‘Be careful before you…
Polite reminder
Why rudeness doesn’t pay
The truth about Prince Philip’s ‘gaffes’
However impressive Prince Philip was in photographs, it didn’t compare to his imposing bearing in the flesh. When I met…
The tragic demise of the National Trust
And so the National Trust’s crazed attack on its own properties goes blazing on. Their latest self-hating wheeze is to…
Why is the National Trust so determined to lecture its members?
Can the National Trust dumb down any further? Its latest crazed venture, the Colonial Countryside project, is ‘a child-led history…
No excuse
Covid has become a get-out clause for shoddy service
Their Majesties the Presidents
For anyone who’s a little bit worried about the current state of the Union, Andrew Gimson’s book is a godsend.…
Age of the Econian
The public school elite who rule the wokerati
Office romance
Why would anyone want to work from home?
How are the mighty fallen
Greg Woolf didn’t know his book would come out during an urban crisis. Thanks to coronavirus, Venice’s population, for example,…
Manners maketh America
When I moved to New York in 2005 to be the Daily Telegraph’s correspondent, the first thing I was struck…
No stone unturned
Andrew Ziminski is the man who rebuilt the West Country. For 30 years, this skilled stonemason has renovated some of…
No presidency for old men
What a thrill! Last night, I was dining with a friend in Piccola Italia, a charming restaurant in Manchester, New…
Rod Liddle on Brexit: The Great Betrayal reviewed
Rod Liddle has taken a huge gamble with this book. It could be out of date very soon. The book’s…
Run, Boris, run: why middle-aged MPs have turned into fitness freaks
Forget the cigar, the homburg and the V-for-victory sign. If Winston Churchill were around today, he’d be pounding the streets…
We all have servants now
Montego Bay, Jamaica When the Kennedy clan were children, JFK and his siblings would tear off their clothes before leaping…
The unique, bittersweet beauty of Irish ruins
The Celtic Tiger has come and gone. Over the past 30 years, billions of pounds poured into Irish houses and…
Gibraltar, the rock of ages past
How lazy, snobbish and wrong it is to mock Gibraltar for the lager and fish and chips clichés. Yes, you…
Britain has become a country of braggarts and show-offs
Over the past 20 years, the old British trait of self-deprecation has been killed off. And in its place, boasting…
Requiem for the Common Entrance Exam
So farewell, then, to the Common Entrance Exam, bane of a million schoolchildren’s lives since it was introduced in 1904.…
The English clergy at their oddest – a compendium
As the wordy title of this book and the name of its author suggest, this is a faux-archaic, fogeyish journey…
British men shouldn’t go topless in public. Ever
England didn’t just lose the World Cup. When it comes to male nudity, the country has also lost its sense…
All hail Æthelflæd! The first Brexiteer
This week, Prince Edward was paying tribute to a much-loved Queen. Not ‘Mummy’ — but Queen Æthelflæd, Alfred the Great’s…
Asterix and the sheer brilliance of his creators
A sterix, te amamus! For those not lucky enough to learn their Latin from the dazzling René Goscinny and Albert…
