Diary
Niall Ferguson’s diary: Brazil is overtaking us – but it no longer feels like that
São Paolo It was back in 2001 that my good friend Jim O’Neill of Goldman Sachs coined the acronym ‘Bric’,…
Penelope Lively’s diary: My old-age MOT
My surgery has been calling in all those over 75 for a special session with their doctor — a sort…
White Dee's diary: From Benefits Street to Downing Street?
There’s no reason why you should have heard of me. No reason why you would have watched a Channel 4…
Alexander McCall Smith’s diary: Meeting Babar’s creator
As any author will tell you, literary festivals differ widely. If you are invited to Willy Dalrymple’s Jaipur Festival, with…
Conrad Black’s diary: Why I won’t join the campaign against Rob Ford
When visiting Britain and Australia last November, I discovered that the mayor of Toronto, Robert Ford, is now the world’s…
Ferdinand Mount's diary: Supermac was guilty!
You have to hand it to Supermac. Fifty years after the event, he is still running rings round them. The…
Michael Heath's diary: I've fallen among hipsters (and I have the T-shirt to prove it)
I now live in the hippest part of London, Shoreditch. It must be Tony Blair’s idea of heaven, a multicultural…
Peter McKay's diary: The Old Etonian David Cameron should have been
David Cameron gives Old Etonians a bad name. Critics deplore his Old Etonian-ness, his Lord Snooty Factor. Childish, but it’s…
James Bartholomew's diary: Give up the Today programme - you'll feel better
It’s amusing to see serious journalists and authors struggling to use Twitter under instruction from their newspapers and publishers. They…
Sebastian Faulks's diary: Inside the official first world war commemorations
A year or so ago I was asked to sit on a committee that advises the government on how to…
Steve Punt's diary: Britain is now living in a middle-class parody of itself
One of the most dispiriting experiences currently available is any commercial break during a televised football match. In a Champions…
Nigel Lawson's diary: My secret showdown with the Royal Society over global warming
The long-discussed meeting between a group of climate scientists and Fellows of the Royal Society on the one side, and…
Mishal Husain's diary: Sachin, women secret agents, shipbuilding .. and telling the time.
I’ve worked for the BBC for years and have been listening to the Today programme all my adult life, but…
Celia Walden's diary: Have I finally caught my husband in an affair?
For a minute I just stood there with my back against the wall, staring at the credit card receipt. Then…
Gyles Brandeth's diary: The pub where the Queen came in by the fire escape
Hard on the heels of the 90th birthday of Nicholas Parsons (10 October) comes the 65th birthday of the Prince…
Alexander Waugh's diary: Shakespeare was a nom de plume — get over it
Researching a new book on Shakespeare’s sonnets, I stumbled upon an astonishing piece of hitherto unnoticed evidence in a 16th-century…
Jonathan Aitken's diary: My life as a Christian outreach speaker
The last time I wrote for The Spectator I was sitting in a prison cell. I sent the then editor…
Tristram Hunt's diary: Why has Gove allowed a school that makes women wear the hijab?
ONE OF THE MINOR sociological treats of being appointed shadow education secretary is a frontbench view of David Cameron’s crimson…
Billy Bragg's diary: The right does not own freedom
A great night to be in Pittsburgh. The local baseball team, the Pirates, were attempting to reach their first play-offs…
David Hare's diary: Actresses are smarter than journalists
So mysterious, the Conservative party. In every poll, our five most admired institutions are the NHS, the BBC, the Royal…
Damian McBride: Why I clutched at my trousers in front of Jeremy Paxman
They say nothing beats the feeling of seeing your book in print. But for me, the proudest moment was presenting…
Max Hastings’ diary: I love the British Army (but not the Blackadder version of it)
The looming centenary of the outbreak of the first world war offers an opportunity to break away from the Blackadder/Oh!…
Simon Schama's diary: The British divide? Proms vs 'Am I bovvered'
‘Wider still and wider, may thy bounds be set,’ the ecstatic throng sang at the Last Night of the Proms.…
Harold Evans’s diary: Beware Obama - he always pulls the rug out from under his allies
Days ago, I’d have bet that even the most bitterly partisan Congress in generations would jib at humiliating their commander-in-chief.…
Andrew Marr’s diary: Holidays after a stroke, and what the Germans really think of us
It’s been a strange summer. After a stroke, holidays are not what they used to be. We went to Juan-les-Pins…
