Mary Wakefield

Mary Wakefield is commissioning editor of The Spectator.

What England’s old folk songs can teach us

13 December 2025 9:00 am

I grew up in the 1980s but in many ways it was more like the 1880s. We lived with my…

Say hello to your AI granny

22 November 2025 9:00 am

Doing the rounds on social media is the most disturbing advert I’ve ever seen. And I’m telling you about it…

How lawfare is killing the SAS

11 November 2025 11:14 pm

Here’s a question for you to contemplate, this Remembrance Day: If you found yourself in the chaos of a terrorist…

We have to stop looking away

8 November 2025 9:00 am

I learnt not to intervene on a late summer’s afternoon nine years ago. My son was still a baby and…

‘People can’t take a joke these days’: Michael Heath on wokeness, The Spectator and turning 90

1 November 2025 9:00 am

When I joined The Spectator, the office was in Bloomsbury, in a four-storey Georgian house, and the further down the…

Who will stand up for motherhood?

11 October 2025 9:00 am

Scientists at the Oregon Health and Science University have created the beginnings of a baby using not human eggs, but…

Crime and no punishment in Khan’s London

27 September 2025 9:00 am

Those of us trapped in Mayor Sadiq Khan’s low traffic neighbourhood scheme are now obedient, resigned. We expect a car…

How to raise a patriot

13 September 2025 9:00 am

‘Good news for patriots,’ said one of our most celebrated national newspapers this week: ‘Your numbers are likely to swell.’…

The painful truth about foster care

30 August 2025 4:00 am

The foster care system in this country is collapsing. There are roughly 80,000 children who’ve been removed from violent or…

Could Danny Kruger save the Conservatives?

2 August 2025 9:00 am

I’ve seen signs of life in the Conservative party – unlikely I know, but true. I had thought it a…

The radical vegan ‘Zizians’ are the cult we deserve

19 July 2025 9:00 am

Every week brings a new revelation about the Zizians: the craziest, saddest cult in recent American history. Eight deaths have…

My idea for a new grooming gang inquiry

5 July 2025 9:00 am

It’s disorienting but satisfying that Labour now accepts that Asian grooming gangs exist. Some of my left-identified friends are even…

My campaign to bring back real life

21 June 2025 9:00 am

A new book by an American writer, Christine Rosen, details the way in which we are losing touch with the…

I’ve reached zero tolerance on zero tolerance

24 May 2025 9:00 am

I know an astonishing 89-year-old who climbs mountains, uses a chainsaw and has the muscular, vice-like grip of a gym-built…

Why don’t men ask questions?

10 May 2025 9:00 am

I’ll bet most women under 50 in relationships with men have found themselves wondering when on earth the man is…

Lily Parr and the creepiness of AI resurrection

26 April 2025 9:00 am

I’m not sure it’s possible to make a horror movie more sinister than the chirpy four-minute film on YouTube purporting…

‘Jordan Peterson is a sad and angry man’: an interview with Rowan Williams

19 April 2025 9:00 am

Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury, has a new book out, a slim, thoughtful introduction to Christianity. But that’s not…

The Met’s misogyny

29 March 2025 9:00 am

My friend Rose likes a drink. She lives on the same street as another friend in Camden and three or…

The cat that tamed Dom

15 March 2025 9:00 am

I don’t like cats. I don’t like their reptilian stealth, or the way their heads are set low and poke…

Who’d dare join the SAS now?

1 March 2025 9:00 am

We should all feel scared to our bones about the persecution of the SAS, soldiers harried through the courts for…

The truth about surrogate babies

15 February 2025 9:00 am

I was a twin when I was born, but this was in the days before decent scans and proper neonatal…

Don’t believe the ‘Believe Her’ movement

1 February 2025 9:00 am

I never expected to have strong feelings for a member of Germany’s Green party, but I really do feel extremely…

The fight against gender madness isn’t over

25 January 2025 3:58 am

Too many conservatives are behaving as if Donald Trump’s inauguration has somehow done to wokery what garlic does to a…

The inevitable rise of the divorce party

18 January 2025 9:00 am

Have you been to a ‘divorce party’ yet this season? If you haven’t, not to worry, there’s still time. Divorce…

The nightmare of ‘maladaptive daydreaming’

4 January 2025 9:00 am

At the beginning of the spring term of my second year at university, a French boy called Xavier looked up…