In-depth analysis of the day’s news, plus stories and gossip from Australian politics.
The folly of youth
Let’s start with arithmetic. Edmund White’s 11th novel is a book about age and ageing. The young man of the…
Manhattan transfer
Good historical fiction takes more than research. Henry James once said that writers needed to shed everything that made them…
Time trials
What are ‘lost time accidents’, apart from something on building-site signs announcing hours lost to worker injuries? In this novel…
The pursuit of happiness
There is a wonderful portrait of Kenelm Digby by Van Dyke. He is dressed in black. His hand is on…
Out of this world
It is London in the summer of 1871. Queen Victoria has just opened the Royal Albert Hall in memory of…
Split decision
In 1992 I wrote a column that was published under the headline ‘It’s Time to Split the Tate’. To my…
Highly illogical
Matteo Garrone’s first English-language film is a baroque fantasy based on Pentamerone (Tale of Tales), the 17th-century collection of fairy…
Wardrobe malfunction
It is at the Coliseum that I have seen the most wonderful Tristan and Isoldes of my life, both of…
I dream of Genie
Gauche, perhaps, to complain about Aladdin but it slightly deserves it. The terrific Genie opens the show and then disappears…
Swan upping
Was Tamara Rojo, when she danced Swan Lake last Saturday at the Albert Hall, thinking as she shaped each phrase,…
My big fat Gypsy fortune
In his latest documentary for the This World series, the Romanian film-maker Liviu Tipurita could have been forgiven for treading…
Australian letters
The Peta principle Sir: A besotted Richard Ferguson didn’t hold back on the superlatives in his pean to Peta Credlin…
Women of substance
Three women, three writers, three very different life experiences. On Monday afternoon the artist Fiona Graham-Mackay introduced us to Imtiaz…
High life
Marion, Baroness Lambert, was hit and killed by a London bus last month while shopping in Oxford Street, a cruel…
Low life
Michel is one of those Frenchmen one encounters now and again whose shining saintliness is beyond rational understanding. This great…
Real life
‘This EU passport is an outrage. I want a British one!’ Not my words, Cydney’s. The spaniel is coming round…
Long life
It was 41 years ago that The Spectator first urged its readers to vote Brexit in a referendum, but the…
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