Diary

Diary

26 August 2017 9:00 am

It has been a summer of tears, both of joy and sorrow. The latter first: how could stones not weep…

Diary

19 August 2017 9:00 am

To the Business School at the University of Edinburgh to be interviewed on the theme of ‘Great Political Disasters’. Main…

Diary

12 August 2017 9:00 am

No sympathy from me for the Brits stuck in the European heatwave. I’ve never understood people who go abroad for…

Diary

5 August 2017 9:00 am

Diana Spencer has been dead for 20 years. I was a journalist on the Evening Standard in those days and…

Diary

29 July 2017 9:00 am

As pictures go, it could be career death. An amazing young talent caught in a compromising position with two older…

Diary

22 July 2017 9:00 am

Monday morning and I am heading south on Harley Street towards a rendezvous with ramifications, a date that is also…

Diary

15 July 2017 9:00 am

It has been an unqualified delight, even if it is mildly absurd: I have been chairing the judges for this…

Diary

8 July 2017 9:00 am

A trip to the supermarché at the beginning of our French month yielded many of the necessary things one also…

Diary

1 July 2017 9:00 am

Also in Sam Leith’s Diary: the best 18th-century novel since the 18th century and gossiping with David Miller

Diary

29 June 2017 1:00 pm

To Fortnum & Mason last week on the hottest evening of the year to present the Desmond Elliott Prize for…

Diary

24 June 2017 9:00 am

Five years after I swore I’d finished with him, it’s odd to be back on the road with Alex Rider.…

Diary

17 June 2017 9:00 am

Nobody inside CCHQ was prepared for election night’s 10 p.m. exit poll. Lynton Crosby’s last text to me predicted that…

Diary

10 June 2017 9:00 am

Hundreds of terrorists and suspected terrorists have gone through the British educational system. Yet amid all the pre-election talk about…

Diary

8 June 2017 1:00 pm

Hundreds of terrorists and suspected terrorists have gone through the British educational system. Yet amid all the pre-election talk about…

Diary

3 June 2017 9:00 am

In such gorgeous weather the best part of Scotland to visit is not (as so many seem to think) the…

Diary

27 May 2017 9:00 am

The chances of my 20-year-old student son being at an Ariana Grande concert on a Monday night were, my head…

Diary

20 May 2017 9:00 am

On the heels of the Today programme’s invitation to discuss ‘cultural appropriation’ (again), the New York Times reported the disheartening…

Diary

13 May 2017 9:00 am

Watching the general election from my newsroom is an out-of-body experience. I’ve been involved in the last five general elections…

Diary

6 May 2017 9:00 am

The Prosperity UK conference over a week ago kicked off with a dinner at Hatfield House that brought together Leavers…

Diary

29 April 2017 9:00 am

When Trevor Phillips stood down as chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, he had served nine years. His…

Diary

22 April 2017 9:00 am

We are all drama queens, really, we political hacks; and so we were all thoroughly delighted by Theresa May’s Tuesday…

Diary

14 April 2017 11:00 pm

Don’t get old! Everything takes so long – it’s an hour to get down to breakfast. And I’m not only…

Diary

8 April 2017 9:00 am

Donald Trump’s Washington is a city of many secrets, but no mysteries. So much about the Trump-Putin story remains unknown,…

Diary

1 April 2017 9:00 am

Last week’s events in London raised a recurrent dilemma for journalists, including me. It is a huge story when a…

Diary

25 March 2017 9:00 am

So I am feeling a bit better about my lack of radio experience. These are exciting times for free movement……