Books
Garlands of repose
It is a truism that writers of all kinds often find inspiration and solace in their gardens, as well as…
Yesterday’s hero
The unforgettable moment a quarter of a century ago when the Berlin Wall came down was the most vivid drama…
The greatest sitcom never made
Funny Girl is the story of the early career of the vivacious, hilarious Sophie Straw, star of the much-loved BBC…
Short of a feast
Rose Tremain walks on water. Her historical novels are absolutely marvellous, brilliantly plotted, witty and wise, with some of the…
Angry old woman
If Stalin had been a theatre director he’d have resembled Joan Littlewood. What an outstandingly unpleasant woman she was —…
Title Stories: The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
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Home-grown sage
Economics is known as ‘the dismal science’, and certainly there have been — and indeed are — economists whose day…
To my father, solicitor to the landed gentry
If you were still alive You would be ninety-six tomorrow. I think of you most days. Just now, for example,…
Books and arts
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Autumn Shades
They start to say autumnal in the forecasts, And on the Northern Line the shifting panels Look bleached already. I…
To my father, solicitor to the landed gentry
If you were still alive You would be ninety-six tomorrow. I think of you most days. Just now, for example,…
Title Stories: The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
The post Title Stories: The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe by C.S. Lewis appeared first on The Spectator. Got…
To my father, solicitor to the landed gentry
If you were still alive You would be ninety-six tomorrow. I think of you most days. Just now, for example,…
Title Stories: The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment below.
Apocalypse postponed
At the end of the 18th century, Britain shuddered in Boney’s shadow, living in constant expectation of invasion and occupation, says Nigel Jones
A box of squibs
Enough of big ideas and grand designs. Instead, here are 30 unusually small ideas from the giant pulsating brain of…
The burning issue of the age
Some reviewers are slick and quick. Rapid readers, they remember everything, take no notes, quote at will. I’m the plodding…
Memos to self
It would be perverse not to succumb to the temptation to write this review as a list. So, the first…
Say Cheese
Like many of my generation I was enchanted by the surrealistic irreverence of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, until I overheard…
The parlour-game approach
A group of retired Somerset farmers were sitting about in the early 1960s, so Ian Mortimer’s story goes, debating which…
She knows she is right
Shami Chakrabarti, director of the civil rights group Liberty and omnipresent media personality, is on the cover of her book.…
The latest horrific mutation
Following his beginnings as a science-fiction horror director, David Cronenberg has spent the past decades transforming himself into one of…
The ultimate comfort food
During the D-day landings, members of the parachute regiment, finding themselves behind enemy lines at night, needed a way of…
Madness in the ghetto
There are many more than seven killings in this ironically titled novel — in fact very long — that starts…
For the term of our unnatural lives
‘To die of age is a rare, singular and extra-ordinary death’, wrote Montaigne, ‘and so much less natural than others:…
