Books
Too many Cooks…
It’s no joke, writing about comedians. Their work is funny, their lives are not. Rightly honouring the former while accurately…
Thinking outside the box
Everyone loves an anniversary and the crossword world — if there is such a thing — has been waiting a…
No country for old men
‘Is he a good writer? Is he pro-regime?’ an Iranian journalist in London once asked me of Hooman Majd. Majd…
The house-party from hell
It is perhaps the most celebrated house-party in the history of literary tittle-tattle: a two-house-party to be precise. Byron and…
Remembering Andro Linklater
For 24 years Andro Linklater, who died aged 68 on 3 November, reviewed books in these pages. Always an enthusiast,…
Books and Arts
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Mining magnate paradox
In many ways, Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest has become the likeable face of the Australian mining boom, a self-made billionaire without…
Two cheers for Bowen
Since I know Speccie readers like a bit of a shock, let me oblige: I think Chris Bowen is a…
Books and Arts
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Nationalist stirrings
Philip Hensher on how an impassioned, chaotic group of amateur 19th-century composers created the first distinctively Russian music
The good companion
‘Goodbye to the Mezzogiorno’ was the first Auden poem that Alexander McCall Smith read in his youth. He discovered it…
Seduction made easy
Spectator readers need no introduction to Peter Jones. His Ancient and Modern column has instructed and delighted us for many…
Recent crime fiction
No Exit Press is not a large publisher but it has the knack of choosing exceptionally interesting crime fiction. Brother…
Reading a face
Do you think you can tell things about writers from the way they look in a painting or photograph? A…
Manners for beginners
Sandi Toksvig, as this book’s cover declares, ‘makes Stephen Fry look like a layabout’. The broadcaster, author, comedian, actress and…
The baby and the bathwater
Mrs Christabel Russell, the heroine of Bevis Hillier’s sparkling book, was a very modern young woman. She had short blonde…
A selection of humorous books
Books do furnish a room, and quirky books for Christmas do furnish an enormous warehouse somewhere within easy reach of…
A touch of Frost
Is there any such thing as abstract art? Narratives and coherent harmonies seem to me always to emerge from the…
The Welsh Chekhov
Rhys Davies was a Welsh writer in English who lived most of his life in London, that Tir na nÓg…
Squires, spires and serenity
I don’t know whether Bruce Bailey, a proud Northamptonshire man, agrees with the late Sir Nikolaus Pevsner that no one…
The thrill of the chase
Charles Palliser’s debut novel The Quincunx appeared as far back as 1989. Lavish and labyrinthine, this shifted nigh on a…
Market values
After reading Portobello Voices, I feel more strongly than ever that the unique Portobello market mustn’t be allowed to close.…
A rogues’ gallery
Hands up Spectator readers who can remember the American celebrities Charles Lindbergh, Babe Ruth, Al Capone, Jack Dempsey, Zane Grey,…
Cantons and Cantonese
In 1863, the pioneering travel agent Thomas Cook took a group of British tourists on the first package holiday to…
The little voice
Of all the sights of Australia’s long phase of cricket dominance, none was quite so characteristic as Ricky Ponting emerging…
