Rachel Johnson

My night at the Spectator summer party

12 July 2025 9:00 am

The first rule of the summer party is do not hold your summer party on the same night as The…

I’ve lost control of the kitchen

14 June 2025 9:00 am

Looking back, I can pinpoint my fatal blunder. It was lunch. It was like the West allowing Vladimir Putin to…

We’re spending the children’s inheritance on the dog

10 May 2025 9:00 am

After we bought a place on my father’s hill farm in 2000, I’d study the notices pinned to boards in…

Bloodbath at West Chapple farm

26 April 2025 9:00 am

Fifty years after its original publication, John Cornwell’s account of the Devon murder mystery involving three dysfunctional siblings remains as haunting as ever

The Lady vanishes

5 April 2025 9:00 am

The moment I stepped out of the Covent Garden sunshine and into the regal offices of the Lady magazine, it…

My secret Ukraine trip with Boris

1 March 2025 9:00 am

Kyiv On the morning of 24 February, I woke just before seven as a tentative apricot dawn was spreading over…

What I can’t tell you about Lamu

1 February 2025 9:00 am

Lamu Ever since we arrived on the syrupy, sweltering Swahili coast – where else would your Best Life columnist be…

The hell of bra shopping

4 January 2025 9:00 am

It’s probably haram to quote Cecil Rhodes these days, but he was bang on when he said: ‘Remember that you…

The Parties of the Year: my verdict

30 November 2024 9:00 am

As the editor’s brief for this column is ‘Fomo-inducing’, I must push the boat out for my debut and am…

The best podcasts to fall asleep to

28 September 2024 9:00 am

‘Yous!’ a train cleaner in rubber gloves says as we arrive at Liverpool Lime Street. ‘What are yous doing here?’…

It’s hard work having fun: Wives Like Us, by Plum Sykes, reviewed

18 May 2024 9:00 am

A ride with friends involves dressing to the nines and stopping at a Marie Antoinette-style ‘hameau’ for sloe-gin cocktails – served by uniformed staff and filmed for Instagram

Women don’t want women-only clubs

13 April 2024 9:00 am

In my experience, men offer this infuriating comeback when challenged about the continuing exclusion of women from clubs such as…

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