Lionel Shriver

How governments gaslight

12 July 2025 9:00 am

The posters now plastered around German public swimming pools are so hilarious that you may have seen them already. Keeping…

‘Trans rights’ has never been a civil rights issue

28 June 2025 9:00 am

Indisputably a nutjob, Chase Strangio is the soul of nominative determinism. The lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union is…

Has deporting illegals become illegal?

14 June 2025 9:00 am

The circus around Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia – whose full name the New York Times likes to trot out as…

The war on normality

31 May 2025 9:00 am

Exciting news. To ‘showcase the vibrant diversity of both marine life and the LGBTQ+ community’, the visionary Bristol Aquarium has…

How English are you really?

17 May 2025 9:00 am

I’ve struggled to ascertain from afar the true nature of Germany’s Alternative für Deutschland. Progressive media love to quote its…

Why the trans debacle matters

3 May 2025 9:00 am

I first stuck my neck out on ‘trans’ nearly a decade ago, when a societal obsession with pretending to change…

The biggest threat to Trump is Trump

19 April 2025 9:00 am

Although Republicans and Democrats have few things in common, there’s one American universal: we don’t like when you mess with…

How to find your perfect man

5 April 2025 9:00 am

My late parents perpetually promoted their marriage as the best in the history of the universe. Because this cult of…

Don’t write off literary fiction yet

22 March 2025 9:00 am

I don’t intend to start a feud. Most of Sean Thomas’s essay on The Spectator’s website last week, titled ‘Good…

I’m a culture war addict

8 March 2025 9:00 am

Reading Melissa Lawford’s excellent analysis in the Sunday Telegraph, ‘Putin can’t afford peace – Russia’s economy is hooked on war’,…

It’s time to scrap the asylum system

22 February 2025 9:00 am

Whatever you think of the blizzard of executive orders howling from the White House, at least the new President doesn’t…

How I took on Microsoft’s AI – and won

8 February 2025 9:00 am

‘This is an assault!’ I screamed in my study, oblivious to the fact that my husband had a guest downstairs.…

Immigration’s theatre of the absurd

25 January 2025 9:00 am

On the cusp of an almighty row over Trump’s planned mass deportations, let’s look to Europe for light relief. Last…

The case against a ‘climate emergency’

11 January 2025 9:00 am

January is the ideal month for gaining a sense of perspective. I’m increasingly convinced that the ‘climate emergency’ is another…

Why didn’t I read the comments sooner?

14 December 2024 9:00 am

I adhere to a pretty iron-clad rule: not only do I avoid the bumper cars of social media, but I…

The column you don’t want to read

7 December 2024 9:00 am

Curiously unobserved about last month’s US election: how astonishing it was that the candidates’ policy positions during the pandemic played…

The true meaning of free speech

23 November 2024 9:00 am

Right after Donald Trump’s landslide, I opined on YouTube that this turning point could sound the death knell for Woke…

The real test for the republic

9 November 2024 9:00 am

It’s always intimidating to write for a readership more clued up than you are. I file this on the very…

America’s last undecided voter

26 October 2024 9:00 am

This is the last column I’ll file before the American presidential election, and I’ve dreaded writing it for months. (The…

My friend the pariah

12 October 2024 9:00 am

Spectator TV viewers may recall that in last week’s Americano podcast, Freddy Gray interviewed the University of Pennsylvania law professor…

Whatever happened to Lionel Shriver?

28 September 2024 9:00 am

For many readers, my absence from these pages may have gone unnoticed. Those few who’ve detected my disappearance might have…

Will the real Kamala Harris please stand up?

3 August 2024 9:00 am

About five minutes ago, the one Democrat more certain to lose to Donald Trump than Joe Biden was his widely…

The cognitive dissonance of the Democrats

20 July 2024 9:00 am

Believe it or not, I planned to write the gist of this column before Saturday night. However, a caveat. Unlike…

Biden is as big a narcissist as Trump

6 July 2024 9:00 am

The dullest assertion you can make about Donald Trump is that he’s a narcissist who has no interest in the…

Tory voters want to punish their party – and themselves

22 June 2024 9:00 am

For progressive onlookers abroad, the Labour landslide now projected next month will seem a cheerful counterweight to the EU parliamentary…