Diary
Diary
‘Stopping the diary/’ wrote Philip Larkin, ‘Was a stun to memory,/ Was a blank starting.’ I never really understood those…
Diary
I’m often asked why Channel 4 recently banned an episode of my show The IT Crowd because of ‘transphobia’. I…
Diary
I’m often asked when I’ll write a pandemic novel. I’m not sure I’d ever be tempted, though the backdrop of…
Diary
It is such a relief that Dominic Cummings has gone. Not for the sake of the country or the government…
Diary
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, is a useful stop for journalists looking for some rust-belt Americana not too far from New York. The…
Diary
American expats have a conundrum on election night: do you stay up to watch the results come in or do…
Diary
Even in this bizarre year of Covid (for everybody) and ‘cancellation’ (for me), the last week or two has stood…
Diary
Here’s a tip. When the Foreign Office advises against going somewhere, hop on the next plane. The mandarins have advised…
Diary
The weird thing about Donald Trump’s handling of Covid-19, alongside all the other weird things, is that he has always…
Diary
I first visited Orford in 1970, at peak Cold War when this stretch of the East Anglian coast was one…
Diary
I have been in Istanbul, partly to research a French-born collateral ancestor of mine, Aimée Dubucq, who, according to legend,…
Diary
The only female writers of importance I have personally met are Margaret Atwood and Joan Didion, both of whom are…
Diary
I moved to this country from the USA 30 years ago and this year I’ve finally understood why: it was…
Diary
This is a very British story. Because we Brits are often warlike but never militaristic, we often make a balls-up…
Diary
It’s never a good sign when you’re watching a scene of street terror in yet another gut-churning YouTube video and…
Diary
Staying in Britain for the summer has been, in many ways, entirely glorious. We have zigzagged from Shropshire through Derbyshire…
Diary
It’s three days since rumours swirled around France that President Macron was going to impose a ‘tit-for-tat’ quarantine on UK…
Diary
I have known Ghislaine Maxwell for more than 40 years, since she was a student at Balliol. I always liked…
Diary
It is a particular pleasure to be returning to the columns of The Spectator, more than half a century after…
Diary
Four years ago, I bought a ranch in Wyoming. Not that I was tired of New York, but I’m fascinated…
Diary
I’ve been a regular runner for 40 years, pounding my way across Hampstead Heath to Kenwood House and back. This…
Diary
A rare illness has broken out in Westminster. Last week a case of what was known before Brexit as ‘consensus’…
Diary
‘Musician’ is how I described myself to the nice Latvian lady interviewing me the other week for an ONS survey…
Diary
Do you remember where you were when the BBC showed a rerun of Bowie’s Glastonbury set? When we ask each…
Diary
‘Pray for us St Sebastian that we may deserve to pass through this pestilence,’ reads the inscription on a 15th-century…
