This week’s IPCC report, with yet another deadline for action to avert climate ‘catastrophe’, deserves push-back from Australia. Instead of…

If you would like to save $50, the fastest way of doing so is by not buying Bob Woodward’s biography…

I love a rollicking book of insults as much as the next person. In typical Australian style they lean towards…

No doubt many Speccie readers took heart from ANU Chancellor Gareth Evans’s recent suggestion that the business of a university…

If I had three years spare I would enrol in the BA at Campion College, at Toongabbie in Sydney’s west.…

Amelia is an academic at an Australian university. She reached out to me earlier this year after seeing my work…

The bedrock of a successful society is formed by common language, common values, and common goals. When societies lose sight…

Naomi Klein from Canada oversees courses for tens of thousands of Australian high school students. She’s an anarcho-environmentalist mobilising grass-roots…

At the risk of propelling readers to throw down this wonderful magazine in despair and shift to watching the latest…

Australia will soon face what is arguably one of the most important elections in its history, with Wentworth a crucial…

As someone who spent three decades working closely with intelligence services in the Arab world and the West, the Saudi…

In order to avoid the Labour conference and yet more predictable media attacks on Jeremy Corbyn, I escaped late last…

In February, I spoke at the first ‘Irexit’ public meeting in Dublin, a discussion about options for Ireland in the…

Each year, about ten people in Britain die from allergic reactions to food. The case of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, who died…

So farewell, then, to the Common Entrance Exam, bane of a million schoolchildren’s lives since it was introduced in 1904.…

‘The trade deal USMCA has received fantastic reviews. It will go down as one of the best ever made, and…

When I mention to people that I have written a book about home bars, the most common response is, ‘my…

‘The role of government is not to pick favourites and subsidise them or protect them.’ So says the government’s industrial…

Home EU officials were suspiciously cheerful over the prospects of Brexit negotiations running up to the next summit on 18…

I’m giving 93 speeches over the next four months to promote my new book, Churchill: Walking with Destiny, but I…

Financial constraints combined with a shortage of staff have brought the NHS to a situation so desperate that it is…

Global warnings How much time do we have to save the world from catastrophic climate change? 5 years         (according to…

Climate wars Sir: Your editorial about a cold September and global temperature change since 2015 is pure rubbish. A quick…

Before every Budget, George Osborne would tell his aides to prepare for it as if it were their last. His…

There is a new book out about the sun — the bright thing in the sky, not the newspaper. It…

I met the late Darcy ten years ago, and wrote about him. I was 59 and he was 12. I…

Following Christine Blasey Ford’s Senate testimony about being sexually assaulted by the US Supreme Court nominee when he was 17,…

Unilever’s abandonment of plans to scrap its Anglo-Dutch corporate structure and leave London is a huge embarrassment for chief executive…

The revival of interest in mid-20th century novelists is one of the most positive and valuable developments of our time.…

We’re celebrating 250 years of circus this year. In 1768, the retired cavalryman and entrepreneur Philip Astley, together with his…

It’s not surprising, perhaps, that Emil Cioran isn’t much read in England. Born in Romania, but winning a scholarship to…

A novel by Javier Marías, as his millions of readers know, is never what it purports to be. Spain’s most…

‘It’s a beautiful world if it wasn’t for Gandhi who is really a perfect nuisance,’ Lord Willingdon, Viceroy of India,…

André Aciman’s 2007 debut novel, Call Me By Your Name, was a sensuous, captivating account of the passionate love a…

I recently read a book in which the author, describing rural life in the early 19th century, casually mentioned clothing…

I bet that you are at best dimly aware of the Progress Trust, and that is what the members of…

I first saw John Ruddick speak about party reform in 2011 as part of his quixotic run for NSW State…

Architects and politicians have a lot in common. Each seeks to influence the way we live, and on account of…

At six in the morning of 20 July 1888, Robert Louis Stevenson first set eyes on a Pacific Island. As…

How very odd of Radio 4 not only to release The Ratline as a podcast before broadcasting it on the…

Damien Chazelle’s First Man is a biographical drama that follows Neil Armstrong in the decade leading up to the Apollo…

Pinter Two, the second leg of the Pinter season, offers us a pair of one-act comedies. The Lover is a…

You won’t be aware of this because the BBC has been keeping it very quiet. But the new Doctor Who…

Kenneth MacMillan’s Mayerling is a #MeToo minefield. Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria-Hungary is a serial seducer, a man of many…

‘On Brünnhilde’s rock I drew the breath that called your name; so swift was my journey here.’ It’s Act Two…

Grade: B– Ooh goody — a parade to rain on! You wouldn’t believe the hyperbole expended by the rock critics…

Every day, Australians carry some of his work in their pockets. Stuart Devlin (1931-2018) designed the decimal currency introduced in…

Gstaad   The bells are ringing, the bells are ringing, ding dong, ding dong. The cows are down from up…

I told Oscar to wait outside and I went in and said to the barman: ‘Would it be all right…

Teacher training is terrific fun. Oh yes, I am thoroughly enjoying myself on my evening course at Guildford College. Don’t…

Racing is full of risk-takers, not least those who fork out hefty sums to buy yearlings or unraced two-year-olds. Back…

Good news for bridge if the Open World Championships in Orlando are anything to go by. Far from dying, it…

The Batumi Olympiad ended as a great success for the teams from China, which captured the gold medals in both…

White to play. This is from Pace-Aguilar, Batumi Olympiad 2018. How did White finish off crisply? Answers to me at…

In Competition No. 3069 you were invited to provide a spoof version of the song ‘My Favourite Things’ for the…

All the unclued Across lights are of a kind, as are all the unclued Down ones. They can be paired…

The twelve unclued lights can be arranged into the sequence yielding phrases from ‘First’ to ‘Twelfth’. First 21, Second 24,…

West Yorkshire Police hit the headlines twice this week. First we learned that the fourth-largest force in England and Wales…

A few weeks ago I flew to Sydney to speak at a conference. The first leg was on the new…

Q. An old friend shares aesthetic sensibilities and tastes in people. Hence we have sustained a highly enjoyable correspondence over…

Drink and democracy have one important point in common: an ambivalent relationship with discord. They can mitigate it. They can…

President Vladimir Putin of Russia remarked of Sergei Skripal, whom his agents tried to kill, ‘He’s simply a scumbag.’ Scumbag…