Life
The ‘lovely boy’ who’s ruining our lives
We spent an hour in the Garda station trying to explain ourselves to a flame-haired police lady. She sat with…
Could our chicken-killing dog sniff out a fortune?
Dante’s Beach, Ravenna Maria, the boisterous new vizsla who gives the old one, Rocco, such a hard time, was in…
Aussie life
Driving up Noosa North Shore a few weeks ago we joined three other vehicles bogged in the soft sand. All…
Language
I heard ‘begging the question’ being misused (again!) on talkback radio. But let’s not blame the poor old broadcasters –…
I spend more on wine than I do on my mortgage
The first time I got drunk was at a wedding. I was 12 or thereabouts and sick in the taxi…
AI has helped make ‘parasocial’ the word of the year
‘After having thrown a sheep six times from the top of a tower,’ reported the Gloucester Journal in 1784, ‘Montgolfier…
Could two great managers bring us two World Cup wins?
Maybe it’s the time of the year, or maybe it’s down to my sad little life, but surely I can’t…
Spectator Competition: Write Christmas
Competition 3429 invited you to tell the story of the Nativity in the style of a well-known writer. There were…
The Spectator’s 2025 Christmas quiz
Events, dear boy In 2025: 1. Name the singer of ‘(Everything I Do) I Do It for You’ whose concert…
Survival here is about logistics: Disneyland Paris reviewed
Alcoholics know that hell is denial, and there is plenty at Disneyland Paris in winter. This is a pleasure land…
AI will take jobs – the wrong ones
As those of you familiar with this column will know, I am always eager to distinguish between an option and…
One of the joys of wine is the people who make it
Towards the end of the war, a young Guards officer met some Italian aristocrats. They had much in common. Robert…
Dear Mary, from Bernard Cornwell: Should I stop a nightmare couple from coming to a wedding?
From Emma Barnett Q. What do I do about the fact that my friends are all scared of the telephone…
Can Ben Wallace defend racing from Labour?
I met Ben Wallace for the first time the other day. He was pretty well the only minister who came…
Nothing gets rid of friends like the breakdown of a marriage
Kenya An unexpected subplot in the ending of my marriage has been the loss of dear old friends. It came…
The glorious weirdness of Christmas in Thailand
Bangkok Christmas in Thailand is one of the strangest festivities of the modern world. A country that is almost entirely…
On the trail of the White Lady
As we reached the top of the hill and saw the view in front of us my heart thumped so…
