There is a grain of truth (for once) in Julia Gillard’s assertion that for Peter Costello ‘it was easy to…

What do we leave behind us when we die, asked the Prime Minister? Our deeds are quickly forgotten. Our goods…

Austria is one of those nations which is known by everybody, but visited by few. Though considered to be within…

The Palmer/Greens/Labor Senate inquiry into the Queensland state government is a disgrace

That’s not reform, Mr Ruddick... THIS is reform

The dummies’ guide to modern university governance

The Liberal party, celebrating its 70th anniversary this week, was a product of passion; particularly that of Robert Menzies. The…

That’s not reform, Mr Ruddick... THIS is reform

Anti-terror laws are being used to suck in sensitive data without the traditional protections. It’s journalists now. It could be you next

The Tory papers seem to want their own human rights abolished. The leftist ones cheer when journalists are arrested. Does their civil war matter more to them than their civil liberties?

His latest autobiography is a self-portrait as a wronged genius

These feelgood humanitarian missions suggest that money’s being spent in the wrong place —and that we’re not facing up to failure in the Middle East

The English bull terriers had come flying toward us like calf-high missiles

Rockets, rogue science fiction writers and relics of MH17 in Ukraine’s disputed territory

Phil Ivey, Crockfords of Mayfair, and the dangerous game of edge sorting

Corsica has a complicated history – and some great ice cream

Humanitarian aid should be about sharing our expertise

Home Alan Henning, 47, a British volunteer aid worker taken captive in Syria by Islamic State, was murdered, and footage…

Plus: Paris vs London, the meaning of being 60, and a new reason to love Greece

Plus: the European capital with most foreigners (it’s not London)

From ‘News of the Week’, The Spectator, 10 October 1914: The Germans must really be in very desperate straits if,…

Faith and flexibility Sir: What a contrast in your two articles on religion last week: one liberal atheist parent (Claire…

The anti-Conservative rhetoric is not a prelude to a divorce; it’s setting the terms for a second marriage

Don’t think of Colonel Bufton-Tufton – think of Mondeo Man and Worcester Woman

Thanks to our natures, nurture affects each of us very differently

Say what you like about the French Revolutionaries but at least they had a poetic imagination. When they wanted a…

Plus: Some business scandals are bigger than others, and the real reason the Chancellor has discovered the ‘sharing economy’

A review of 1946: The Making of the Modern World, by Victor Sebestyen. There aren’t many laughs, and such as there are tend to be dark

A review of The Herries Chronicles, by Hugh Walpole, narrated by Peter Joyce. Walpole’s dramatic chronicle of the Herries family is brilliantly recreated

A review of Claxton: Field Notes from a Small Planet, by Mark Cocker. This journal could do with some editing, though

A review of Printer’s Devil Court, by Susan Hill. No gothic element is spared in this possible rival to The Woman in Black

A review of Shackleton, by Michael Smith. It’s a classic story and Smith tells it with passion and commitment – especially when he tames his clauses

A review of The Brethren, by Robert Merle, translated by T. Jefferson Kline. Even when this hit French historical novel is boring, there’s a dividend

A review of Young Lawrence: A Portrait of the Legend as a Young Man, by Anthony Sattin. But don't expect this book to make sense of this enigmatic figure

A review of An event in Autumn, by Henning Mankell. The detective's become more famous than the creator, so the creator's killing him off

A review of The Monogram Murders: A new Hercule Poirot Mystery, by Sophie Hannah (as Agatha Christie). It’s hard to imagine anyone doing a better job of resurrecting Poirot

A review of The World of Late Antiquity AD 150-750, by Peter Brown. Brown called them essays but each chapter is in fact an inspired riff on a theme

A review of Perfidia, by James Ellroy. There are big moral questions and grand themes in Ellroy's new crime novel but ultimately it’s all too inflated

A review of Waterloo: The Aftermath, by Paul O’Keeffe. This highly recommended history is a salutary reminder that most of the actual fighting was left to our allies

A review of For the Love of Radio 4: An Unofficial Companion, by Caroline Hodgson. Bet you didn’t know Arthur Scargill and Cilla Black both chose the Mona Lisa as their Desert Island Discs luxury

Even those of us of a conservative bent hoped that the election of the Rudd government in 2007 would constitute…

Science-fiction is the ultimate film genre, argues Peter Hoskin, on the eve of a major BFI season

Plus: Why the Turner Prize should be abolished – and what could replace it

Plus: ignore Rossini's primary-school simplification of Exodus, Pountney's Mose in Egitto for WNO is astonishing

But what are the Conservatives doing to their tree?

Plus: find out how to de-gay your apartment at Southwark Playhouse’s Next Fall

But I could watch Julie Walters and David Suchet being vile all week

The remaining members look as though they're two or three years from shouting at pedestrians. But they're carrying on

Plus: give or take the odd mild swearword, Grantchester is a drama that could have been made any time in the past 50 years

Plus: Radio 4 reveals the secrets of a gravedigger

I’ve never entirely understood why big cities have arts festivals. Melbourne and Sydney are both big cities by any international…

In the Big Bagel this week, it was just like the heady days of 2002

A remarkable professor helped start my writing career – I didn't know how remarkable until I read his obituaries this week

At least they understand the right way to queue for a late train

Ready meals may be the worst thing about being back in an office

Has Zia Mahmood cried wolf one too many times? He’s still the undisputed master of the ‘psyche’ — he has…

Good news. Fabiano Caruana will be coming to London this December to participate in the sixth London Classic. This will…

White to play. This position is a variation from Aronian-Anand, Bilbao 2014. White needs a subtle move to complete the…

In Competition No. 2868 you were invited to take something mundane and filter it through the lens of magic realism.…

Each of 31 clues comprises a definition and a hidden consecutive jumble of the answer including one extra letter; the…

FURBELOWS — given by initial letters of superfluous words in clues — can be read as FUR BELOW S, indicating…

It’s bad being bossed about from Strasbourg. But the risks of the alternative are worse

…and how we can change the tax system to make it happen

Plus: Emails and thank-you letters, and a tactful way to make guests take off muddy boots

In praise of Château Lagrange, owned since 1983 by Suntory

As a word for men who love sheds, it has nothing to do with blades that don’t cut