Mary Wakefield

Mary Wakefield is commissioning editor of The Spectator.

The poisonous truth about British universities

24 January 2026 9:00 am

This week it became clear that almost none of the adults whose job it is to teach students the truth…

No sex please, we’re Gen Z

10 January 2026 9:00 am

For many years now we have all been agonising over the fertility crisis. Why aren’t the kids having kids? It’s…

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…