Life
The perfect 15-minute chocolate mousse
There’s an inherent pleasure in having something by heart. Poetry at school. Lines in plays. Song lyrics. The things that…
Dear Mary: how can I get my snobby mother to accept a live-in carer?
Q. I have a meeting scheduled with a possible business associate who asked me to buy a certain book on…
Arsenal’s boy wonder is the future of English football
It certainly never happened to me when I was a lad – even after a particularly insightful essay on the…
Louis Theroux needs to make a positive case for masculinity
I’ve always had a soft spot for Louis Theroux. I wouldn’t call him a friend, exactly, but I’ve known him…
Aussie life
I’ve probably enjoyed as many long lunches as any old adman, and in the 1980s and ’90s may well have…
Language
Are our governments guilty of ‘menticide’? This uncommon word is recorded from 1951, in which year it first appeared in…
Ladies love an eye patch
Kenya While we were loading two stud bulls and eight hoggets onto a lorry in my ranch’s yard in the…
Spectator Competition: No thanks
For Competition 3440 you were invited to supply a diplomatic thank-you letter for an unwanted gift. According to a recent…
Am I an extremist?
On Monday, the Communities Secretary Steve Reed rose in the House of Commons to unveil ‘Protecting What Matters’, the government’s…
I’m stuck in a house of madness
‘I want to learn Iranian,’ said my father, resolutely, as he watched the bombing on the television. ‘Farsi,’ I said,…
Why are the British so snobby about prosecco?
My late grandmother used to say that seeing Pope John Paul II descend by helicopter into Dublin’s Phoenix Park in…
Dear Mary: how do I seat lesbians at a dinner party?
Q. We have recently moved out of London and have met charming, married lesbians who are living locally. They are…
‘Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness’ is genius marketing
Last Monday, I delivered a speech to mark the 250th anniversary of Adam Smith’s second-best book: An Inquiry into the…
Do I have what it takes to be a magistrate?
I’m thinking of becoming a magistrate. Before applying, I was advised to attend a few sessions and find out how…
Aussie life
In a recent speech, artist Tim Storrier made a powerful attack on the current state of arts administrators in Australia,…
language
Albanese has spent the whole of his political life a member of Labor’s socialist left. As a result we get…
My take on marry me chicken
I am not in the habit of bringing viral TikTok recipes here. It is a safe space, away from digestive…
The endearing Englishness of Harry Kane
There’s something ineffably endearing about Harry Kane (though I am sure plenty of Bundesliga defenders would disagree), a sort of…
