Rachel Johnson

Diary

22 July 2023 9:00 am

When someone asks ‘How are you?’ you have to assume your interlocutor is only being polite. Anyone who returns a…

Diary

17 June 2023 9:00 am

Yoga has become a hot cultish mess

27 August 2022 9:00 am

The dangers and distortion of yoga

They do things differently in the Cotswolds

6 August 2022 9:00 am

The Season has ended and – apart from The Spectator’s summer bash of course – the two bang-up parties of…

Long live the rock dinosaurs!

29 June 2022 1:54 am

When the Oldie changed ‘leadership’ a few years back I swooped on the new editor, young Harry Mount, like a…

In defence of my brother Boris

17 January 2022 8:07 pm

As you might have guessed, it hasn’t been the calmest, quietest weeks in the Johnson family, and lots of broadcasters…

It’s hard not to pity Ghislaine Maxwell

20 November 2021 9:00 am

This week, I’m having puppies! First litter! The Johnsons were not doggy as we always moved around too much (my…

It's hard not to pity Ghislaine Maxwell

18 November 2021 5:00 pm

It’s hard not to feel a batsqueak of pity for Ghislaine Maxwell — 500 days and counting in solitary confinement.…

GB News will succeed – even if it fails

26 June 2021 9:00 am

Help! If I’m too kind to GB News, my bosses at LBC will be cross as the channel nicked their…

Vaccines are out, sex is in: the rules for post-lockdown conversation

15 May 2021 9:00 am

The rules of post-lockdown conversation

I was dreaming of a cancelled Christmas

28 November 2020 9:00 am

I was dreaming of a cancelled Christmas

All these lockdown puppies come at a price

10 October 2020 9:00 am

The hidden costs of the lockdown puppy boom

Boomer and bust: Covid is fast-forwarding us into retirement

1 August 2020 9:00 am

Covid-19 is fast-forwarding us into retirement

Rachel Johnson: What I wish I’d said about my brother’s treatment

2 May 2020 9:00 am

When the post office and stores closed in our village on Exmoor, my youngest stared out of the car window…

Rachel Johnson: everyone in my family is getting quince paste for Christmas

2 November 2019 9:00 am

Brrring! Freddy Gray of this parish is on the blower. ‘How about a piece for this week saying he’s won,…

Rachel Johnson: which political party should I join next?

17 August 2019 9:00 am

I lay low during the ‘season’ as I can’t think what to say to people any more. I went to…

Down with kissing!

13 April 2019 9:00 am

It’s out of control! If I play doubles first thing, have a lunch, then go to perhaps two parties in…

Dominique Swain as Lolita and Jeremy Irons as Humbert in Adrian Lyne’s 1997 film (Rex Fea-tures)

Would any publisher dare to print Lolita now?

9 March 2019 9:00 am

The other day Will Self unburdened himself on the state of fiction with crushing hauteur. ‘What’s now regarded as serious…

Rachel Johnson: Getting sacked is a badge of honour. And I should know

15 September 2018 9:00 am

People are still asking ‘So, how was your summer’ and mine was nice as far as it went: I didn’t…

What on earth’s happened to Waitrose?

2 June 2018 9:00 am

A few years ago, some friends came to stay with us on Exmoor. After they unfurled from their Volvo, they…

Brexit saved my marriage. Could Putin wreck it?

24 March 2018 9:00 am

I went to a dinner for Toby Young, who has had some troubles of late, at this magazine’s gracious HQ,…

Rachel Johnson: The trouble with today’s porn? Older men are terrified by it

18 November 2017 9:00 am

Long letter from the High Mistress of St Paul’s Girls’ School, addressing me as ‘Dear Old Paulina’ (I thought we…

Rachel Johnson’s diary: My brother’s whopping tax return

16 April 2016 9:00 am

With hindsight maybe it was silly for me to bleat, ‘As everyone knows, the Johnsons are neither posh nor rich’…

Rachel Johnson’s diary: Why I told my book party I was coming out as a lesbian

27 June 2015 9:00 am

My husband says I only write books in order to have a launch party. Not so. I also write books…