Lionel Shriver

We’re making a spectacle of shame

11 July 2020 9:00 am

When I was about ten, on return home from church I ate a peach, the juice of which dribbled down…

Political pandering won’t prevent Covid deaths

27 June 2020 9:00 am

When the media have gone large on the conclusions of an overpoweringly tedious report, one of the biggest favours a…

marching

Marching against racism is too easy

21 June 2020 12:46 am

When I first saw the footage of George Floyd being asphyxiated by a policeman’s knee on his throat, my reaction…

Marching against racism is too easy

13 June 2020 9:00 am

When I first saw the footage of George Floyd being asphyxiated by a policeman’s knee on his throat, my reaction…

Is living without risk really living at all?

30 May 2020 9:00 am

Taking my life in my hands — as we all do when getting out of bed — I walked along…

This is not a natural disaster, but a manmade one

16 May 2020 9:00 am

Should our future permit an occupation so frivolous, historians years from now will make a big mistake if they blame…

If this is a war, let’s fight it like one

2 May 2020 9:00 am

Under the cloud of conformity that has settled over the land as a replacement for air pollution, heretics who doubt…

Real problems erase fake ones

25 April 2020 9:00 am

Last week, a friend quoted a two-year-old email of mine: ‘I’m starting to root for a plague or world war…

The British have bought the lockdown hook, line and sinker

18 April 2020 9:00 am

I am a type. I don’t like groups. I maintain few memberships. I question and resist authority, especially enforcement of…

The longer lockdown continues, the more imperilled we become

4 April 2020 9:00 am

Comically, Chinese Communist party officials have speculated that Covid-19 was planted by the US army. Yet a respectable conspiracy theorist…

Why Hachette were wrong to drop Woody Allen’s memoir

21 March 2020 9:00 am

Even amid plague, economic apocalypse, and the cancellation of 2020, dumb stuff keeps happening. Besides, loads of us will now…

An open letter to the friend who dropped me after Question Time

7 March 2020 9:00 am

I’ve put off sending a private email that’s been ready to go for weeks. Then last Sunday, I read Julie…

Cyclists have become an easy police target

21 February 2020 10:00 pm

Most Britons assume at the outset that any misfortune involving a cyclist is the cyclist’s fault. After all, many a…

I won’t read American Dirt – but not because the author has the wrong skin colour

7 February 2020 10:00 pm

Readers of The Spectator who keep up with the latest literary hissy fits could have predicted (perhaps with a groan)…

Is ‘Mini Mike’ a growing threat to Trump?

24 January 2020 10:00 pm

Should Bernie Sanders become the Democratic presidential nominee, expect the media to overuse these sprightly English expressions: ‘between a rock…

mike bloomberg

Is ‘Mini Mike’ a growing threat to Trump?

22 January 2020 8:51 pm

Should Bernie Sanders become the Democratic presidential nominee, expect the media to overuse these sprightly English expressions: ‘between a rock…

For cod’s sake, don’t sacrifice the fish

11 January 2020 9:00 am

One of the more dispiriting experiences of the British supermarket is a visit to the fish counter. On a  historically…

The persecution (and vindication) of Kevin Myers is a parable of our times

21 December 2019 9:00 am

It seems seasonably suitable to celebrate good news. Unfortunately, as in most serviceable stories, for something good to happen, something…

We don’t owe Waspi women tea and biscuits

7 December 2019 9:00 am

The pressure group Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) is oddly named. What their campaign opposes is pension equality. Now,…

Labour’s real 2019 manifesto

23 November 2019 9:00 am

In 2019, Labour’s strategy is about delivering a fairer, more prosperous society, in adherence to our motto: for the zany,…

Dear Nigel: Don’t become the man who reversed the referendum result

10 November 2019 6:45 pm

Dear Nigel Believe it or not, I’ve been your defender. I’ve often told Americans,  ‘Sure, he comes across as a…

Dear Nigel: Don’t become the man who reversed the referendum result

9 November 2019 9:00 am

 Dear Nigel Believe it or not, I’ve been your defender. I’ve often told Americans,  ‘Sure, he comes across as a…

For Remainers, Brexit is really about power

27 October 2019 6:00 pm

At the New Yorker Festival party in mid-October, my astute colleague hardly needed the caution. But you know how at…

Even in New York they’re going nuts over Brexit

26 October 2019 9:00 am

At the New Yorker Festival party in mid-October, my astute colleague hardly needed the caution. But you know how at…

Asians are doing too well – they must be stopped

12 October 2019 9:00 am

Riddle: when is discrimination against a historically disadvantaged racial minority perfectly legal? Answer: when they do too well. The first…