It has all the makings of a classic feel-good movie. A selection of young Aussie girls from a variety of…

It is good to see that proposals for electoral reform keep coming in. Some of them are designed to prevent…

It is census night and what a controversial thing this census is turning out to be. The twitter feed is…

What could a trendy, tattooed, godless leftie in the hippest bit of Melbourne possibly have in common with an Isis-admiring…

‘I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here,’ said Captain Louis Renault as he collected his…

While non-Aboriginal Australians squirm with guilt over their ‘privilege’, a cabal of middle-class Aboriginals have proven adept at pretending their…

On a warm summer night in London’s Russell Square a young, Muslim migrant randomly stabs members of the public. He…

A few months ago I attended a lunch at which I was serendipitously seated next to a hero of mine,…

The vast Bubye Valley Conservancy in southern Zimbabwe is slightly larger than County Durham, as well as much hotter and…

How strange it is to be watching the Olympic Games on television. No wonder people have such rum ideas of…

Ask me what I had for lunch yesterday and I couldn’t tell you. Names disappear as swiftly as smoke.-Birthdays, capital…

Last week, the New York Times ran the page one headline ‘Pence Supports Ryan, Showing GOP Turmoil.’ There was turmoil…

Cape Town South Africa has just seen her most encouraging election results ever. The general election of April 1994, which…

Thirty years ago this week, Queen performed what would turn out to be their last gig, at Knebworth. Their penultimate…

In or out? Almost two months on and I’m afraid the great debate shows no sign of abating, certainly not…

Where are you going?’ demanded the boy on the wall. A walkie-talkie clipped to his denim shorts crackled, but there…

Home The government floated the idea that individuals might receive payments in areas where fracking was approved, or where housing…

Walking along the Brighton seafront, I was struck by posters advertising endless tribute acts; among them Suspiciously Elvis, the Small…

The end of an emperor — 82-year-old Emperor Akihito of Japan has announced that he wants to abdicate, partly, he…

Whether the EU commission knows what is good for it or not — always a tricky call — post-Brexit Britain…

From ‘Restless politicians’, The Spectator, 12 August 1916: Even those journals which a few months ago were most zealous for…

The hate is real Sir: It is clearly an exaggeration to call Britain a bigoted country (‘We are not a…

Costello for PM? Sir: John Stone’s prediction that Liberal MPs will soon revisit the cutlery draw and stab Turnbull in…

The Chinese government is unlikely to give Theresa May a panda in the near future. This week the country’s ambassador…

Standing outside No. 10, our newly chosen — though not elected — Prime Minister decided to address the country directly.…

Another honours list comes and goes and yet again my name is not on it. I don’t think either the…

Those who want to revive grammar schools are accused of ‘bring backery’ — the unthinking idea that the past was…

Suppose you’d invited me round to dinner to celebrate my engagement to your daughter, which do you think would be…

Theresa May sent a strong message to the corporate world when she criticised the ‘irrational, unhealthy and growing gap’ between…

Madeleine Thien’s third novel, recently long-listed for the Man Booker Prize, begins in Vancouver with Marie, who, like the author,…

This lovely, modest and precise book tells the story of the most productive friendship among the modernists, and the most…

Fifty years ago this summer, a new show appeared on American TV screens. These, the opening titles explained, were the…

To call Nils Büttner a killjoy is perhaps a little unfair, but not very. The professor at Stuttgart’s State Academy…

Six years ago, the Canadian author Clancy Martin made a splash with his autobiographical novel How to Sell, based on…

All organic beings descended from a single primordial blob, according to Darwin. Some of them developed sufficiently to leave the…

We can all share the anguish in the downfall of a simple soul — for movie-goers Brando’s despairing ‘I coulda’…

Was it perhaps the landscape historian Oliver Rackham who gave rise to our present preoccupation with old trees through his…

Elvis only ever appeared in one commercial in his life — for Southern Maid, his favourite jam doughnut shop. That…

Night of Fire is Colin Thubron’s first novel for 14 years. For most of us he is better known as…

‘What is art for?’ is a question too rarely asked. The question is posed, and answered, in the book Art…

Dorset Opera seems to receive far less coverage than the rest of the country-house summer shows, although it is in…

One overcast afternoon in late July I took a train to Norfolk. It seemed a good time and place to…

Proof that someone has really made it as a TV historian comes, I would suggest, when they join the likes…

‘I’m off now,’ says Michael Heath, signing off from his selection of Desert Island Discs on Radio 4, ‘to go…

Threnody. Dirge. Lament. Epitaph. Elegy. Wake. There are so many English terms to describe the passing of people and things…

Many years ago an arts spokesperson for the SNP launched an extraordinary attack on Scottish Opera, saying, ‘If push comes…

As the festival grows, the good acts are harder to find and the prices keep rising to meet the throngs…

Todd Solondz’s Wiener-Dog is billed as a ‘dark comedy’ although it is far more dark than comic. If pressed to…

The post Battle for Britain appeared first on The Spectator.

Seven unclued lights were names of VERSE-MEN (22) minus one letter: VI(R)GIL (1A), BRO(O)KE (15A), BRID(G)ES (16), DON(N)E (9), S(P)ENDER…

Clockwise round the perimeter from 3 run the titles of three items (1, 6, 3, 1, 4, 2, 1, 4,…

In Competition No. 2960 you were invited to submit a poem on the theme of summer in which the last…

Gstaad   ‘He flies through the air with the greatest of ease, that daring young man on the flying trapeze.’…

My husband told me with glee that Nicholas Byfield had a great big stone ‘like flint’ in his bladder, weighing…

Here’s a bridge tip you won’t find in a book — one which the wonderful Gunnar Hallberg gave me. You’re…

The builder boyfriend colicked for a week after eating a falafel kebab as he and I sat up all night…

After the vote to leave the EU it is time to reclaim the good old English names for traditional openings…

Q. I live in Balham but work in Mayfair. Twice recently I have had to take whole days off work…

At 11 p.m. I sneaked away from my boy’s wedding party to my ground-floor accommodation in the hotel to write…

A hoo-ha has broken out in the city of Oryol, south-west of Moscow, over a proposal by the officials there…

White to play. This position is from Steinitz–Chigorin, World Championship (Game 4), Havana 1892. How did White finish off? Answers…

In a one-day international against Australia last year, Ben Stokes was dismissed for ‘obstructing the field’, a rule rarely invoked…

Will Lyons, a delightful companion, is not only a friend of mine. He has one of the finest palates in…

By rights, I should be one of those Tories who is passionately in favour of grammar schools. After all, I…