Features
Freedom of movement isn’t an EU invention. Victorian London thrived on it
Here’s a bracing lesson from Victorian history that might possibly help to slice some impossible Brexit knots. In the 19th…
The highs – and lows – of learning to fly a kite
I’ve flown only three kites in my life. My stepfather bought me the first. I remember seeing him from a…
The bluffocracy: how Britain ended up being run by eloquent chancers
Any time we see a politician fail, or an idiotic policy collapse as it passes through parliament — which these days…
War of words: my battle to correct Wikipedia
How can you be attacked by an encyclopaedia? Until last week I would have thought the idea as absurd as…
V.S. Naipaul’s gentle side
When I went to see V.S. Naipaul in hospital last week he was feeling marginally better. His wife Nadira had…
What does Prince Charles’s art collection tell us about our future king?
It’s like any traditional bazaar. Cushions litter the floor and crowds gather around displays of Chinese pottery and Persian rugs.…
In Britain, deaths of the homeless are not even counted. That says it all
On Valentine’s Day, a homeless man was found dead in the pedestrian subway near the Houses of Parliament. This week,…
Tilbury Docks, where cranes meet Joseph Conrad
The great grey river stretched into the horizon. The sun was big and low in the sky. The air was…
Why are modern men obsessed with self-improvement?
My friend recently met a man on a dating app and went out for dinner with him. When he arrived,…
What do women really want? A man with a beautiful house
Freud famously asked: what do women want? And I think that after two marriages, a dozen long-term relationships and a…
Britain should spend more on diplomacy in Africa and less on aid
It is a tragedy that the party that has ruined Zimbabwe, led by a man who was one of the…
Baseball is perfect. Don’t make it all about race.
Los Angeles Baseball is the best American sport. It’s great because it’s timeless — it exists in a space beyond…
Root out ragwort!
A sea of bright yellow flowers in a sun- drenched meadow… what could be more idyllic? Sadly, all that glisters…
Amateur porn is not empowering
If ever you find yourself bored and with 15 minutes to spare, I recommend looking up Pornhub’s annual report, the…
Make Rosé Pink Again!
When we first moved to the Languedoc, the less poncey part of the south of France nearly 20 years ago,…
British street names: short, simple and unpretentious
You know where you are with a British street name. I don’t mean literally. I mean there’s a tacit humility…
Making China great again
Most reporting on Jeremy Hunt’s visit to China this week went little further than his slip of the tongue in…
Macron’s summer of discontent
‘It could be argued that getting out of the office to beat up some leftists is a good way to…
The sensuous thrill of learning to swim in your sixties
Sharing a plate of oysters with a three-year-old: where could this be but France, where children are brought up not…
Who’s afraid of the WTO?
Warnings by Remainers about the consequences of a ‘no deal’ Brexit are beginning to resemble a game of oneupmanship worthy…
It’s not easy being a Corbynista Jew – just ask Jon Lansman
Being a Jew on the Corbyn left is soul- crushing. In the name of the cause, you must excuse racism…
Brexit means Boris
A few months before he died in 2007, Bill Deedes asked if I would come to see him at his…
![Pupils at Ampleforth in 1952 [Getty]](https://www.spectator.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/pupils.jpg?w=410&h=275&crop=1)
The sorry demise of Benedictine education
Twenty years ago, Douai, a monastic boarding school in West Berkshire, shocked parents with an announcement that it was ‘no…
The Hundred will kill cricket – in all forms
‘There can be no summer in this land without cricket’, wrote Neville Cardus, whose rhapsodic vision of the game lies…
The perfect way to spend two days in New York
In Britain I never drink cocktails, but on arrival in New York it has become a ritual that my first…
