Diary

How silence makes music

10 May 2025 9:00 am

‘What!? But they won’t let you in!’ and ‘What!? But they’ll detain you at the border!’ and ‘What!? But they’re…

Bring on the Trump protests

3 May 2025 9:00 am

The coming week will see the last major commemoration of a second world war anniversary – 80 years since VE-Day…

Men are allowed to fail, too

26 April 2025 9:00 am

The weather in Bath has been preposterously good, with the Royal Crescent glowing in a soft, lemony light. I’m here…

Spare us from performative piety

19 April 2025 9:00 am

Lent did not, I confess, start well. Cheltenham fell in its first week, and the Gold Cup is hardly the…

Heaven is an oeuf en gelée

12 April 2025 9:00 am

The cherry blossom was at its finest as I made my last early morning trip through Regent’s Park to Broadcasting…

My manifesto for the next Archbishop of Canterbury

5 April 2025 9:00 am

When I told a Westminster political editor that my novel NUNC! was about the prophet Simeon and the Nunc Dimittis,…

Steve Witkoff is wrong to see peace in Putin’s eyes

29 March 2025 9:00 am

Kyiv ‘It doesn’t surprise me that they’re abolishing the Ministry of Education,’ my old friend Dima told me. ‘Judging by…

What Donald Trump told me about Keir Starmer

22 March 2025 9:00 am

Two months into President Donald Trump’s second term, the habitual liberal hysteria about his rollercoaster presidential style is reaching shrieking…

Will I be sidelined by AI?

15 March 2025 9:00 am

I’ve been head down for the past few weeks, preparing for my one-man show. The title is catchy – Nigel…

My faux pas with Washington’s most eligible bachelorette

8 March 2025 9:00 am

To the Queen Anne splendour of the British ambassador’s residence in Washington for Peter Mandelson’s welcome party as our man…

The secret to a great service station

1 March 2025 9:00 am

A couple of months ago, an invitation arrived. Would I like a room at the Savoy for the Baftas? I…

Have I been blacklisted by the binmen?

22 February 2025 9:00 am

Monday, and Camden council have yet again failed to empty my food waste bin. They never miss my rubbish or…

Why don’t Yale students want to drink?

15 February 2025 9:00 am

They say it is good to learn new skills as you get older. Well here goes. I am about to…

I feel sorry for ‘Rachel from accounts’

8 February 2025 9:00 am

There’s no statute of limitations on reporting a government minister’s embarrassing oops-a-daisy. It’s no good them doing a duck-dive, hoping…

Save our cathedrals!

1 February 2025 9:00 am

My beloved 1967 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop guitar is now locked away until December at the earliest. For the past…

Give David Beckham a knighthood

25 January 2025 9:00 am

Donald Trump descends on Davos as if he were in Apocalypse Now. Four years ago I saw his cavalcade of…

Am I a MAGA icon?

18 January 2025 9:00 am

‘Traitor!’ the woman yelled at me the instant I entered the beautifully decorated living room of a famous actress. It…

Our family is growing – and our dog is bound to be unimpressed

11 January 2025 9:00 am

I am now well into my second pregnancy. Having conceived through IVF the first time, we were fortunate to have…

I’m not the only football-obsessed composer

4 January 2025 9:00 am

I was in Sweden a few weeks ago, where my music was presented in Stockholm in the most recent International…

I’m a fighter, not a quitter

14 December 2024 9:00 am

‘Ring out the old, ring in the new…’ This was the year I discovered that one of my ancestors had…

In Mumbai, everyone asks about Rishi and Boris

7 December 2024 9:00 am

Mumbai is my kind of town, a party town. In my first weeks living here, I was out most nights…

The Westminster Wag to watch

30 November 2024 9:00 am

Surely charity is about helping others, not massaging your own ego? Ed Sheeran’s boycott of Band Aid is yet another example of…

Get ready for Elon Musk’s sex robots

23 November 2024 9:00 am

My old mucker Donald Trump’s return to the White House has predictably sent the woke brigade into hysteria. From posting…

Nigel told me he’s the new Boris

16 November 2024 9:00 am

Last week I arrived in London from the Cotswolds just in time to witness the collective meltdown from everyone around…

The night I was turned away from the Ivy

9 November 2024 9:00 am

How the mighty can fall. I was overwhelmed by the approbation I had received for my one-woman show, Behind the…