What an extraordinary year. And what a wonderful way for conservative-leaning Australians to head into their summer holidays. Over the…

I’m starting to think the Victorians were right about children. And when I say Victorians, I’m not talking about that…

My problem with Christmas is that it is all ‘give, give, give.’ Whatever happened to ‘take, take, take’? Taking is…

Excuse me for starting on a flat note. On my mind this Christmas is that Australia’s most famous living Christian…

Ever wonder where all this talk of ‘diversity’ started? Well, it actually dates back some four decades to a 1978…

The year has been an odd one for books, with some trying to make sense of the political landscape and…

The recent tragic bushfires reignited the argument about global warming – the science is settled – and burnt the Green-Left…

Pictures of Kurdish women fighters alongside men surprised many in the West and the October withdrawal of American forces from…

You are in a tizz. Christmas is just around the corner and you can’t think of the right present for…

Hidden in the spectacular rugged mountains of the far north Flinders Ranges at Arkaroola is a climate story written in…

Show trials, where the accused have no rights and guilt is predetermined, are integral to communist and Nazi regimes. They…

The era of uncertainty has ended. Boris Johnson’s decisive victory has not only broken the Brexit deadlock created by Theresa…

I recently tried to put my profession down as ‘actress’ on Instagram, but the only option available from the drop-down…

Every Christmas I find I am living in the past. I blame my father. He was born in 1910 —…

There’s a moment in Ricky Gervais’s 2018 Netflix stand-up show Humanity when he talks about buying a first-class air ticket,…

It’s an unfashionable thought, but having spent many hours in the university sports hall where constituency votes for Boris Johnson…

When Benjamin Netanyahu visited Oman in 2018 in a gesture of goodwill to Israel’s neighbours, the welcome was not universal.…

Sir Tom Stoppard is Britain’s — perhaps the world’s — leading playwright. Born Tomas Straussler in Zlin, Czechoslovakia, in 1937,…

On the morning of the election, we buried my lovely mum. I write this 24 hours later, now on a…

For the past several decades, little in my life as a professional pianist has been as constant as my relationship…

On 13 October, John Henry Newman, a distinguished and distinctive Englishman, was officially declared a Saint. A well-known saying of…

If anything could make me feel sorry for Boris Johnson, it’s meeting his father, Stanley. Before we met, he sent…

Grayson Perry In 1992 I created a graphic novel called Cycle of Violence. Reading it now, the initially striking thing…

They say I must retire next month when I turn 75. Irritating. I have been a member of the Supreme…

Let nobody tell you that the second decade of the 21st century has been a bad time. We are living…

  January My 2018 ended with a hate storm, in response to my appointment as chair of the government’s Building…

James Ellroy is occasionally quoted as saying he’s the greatest American crime novelist ever. The man sometimes called the ‘demon…

At the age of 87 I find myself not just a first-time author, but a bestseller. I’ve always told stories,…

It was early evening on Sunday 6 August 1944. The Allies’ bloody struggle to liberate Normandy from the Nazis had…

Back to Texas to prepare for guests arriving for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Once again we left our Paris home not…

‘How can one person lead one hundred?’ That was one of the questions in my Cambridge entrance exams back in…

‘Flamenco, lambada/ But hip hop is harder/ We moonwalk the foxtrot/ Then polka the salsa…’ I’m sure you know those…

P.J. O’Rourke I love poems but hate poetasters, love wine but detest oenophiles, love food but can’t stand foodies. Therefore…

We don’t have Thanksgiving in Britain, but this does not stop us giving thanks and Christmas is a good time…

The Christmas King steps slowly from his house and sniffs the evening’s chill. His tread is dainty, for all his…

This dish is refreshing and super yummy. It’s a recipe that Didas (my Indian grandmother) taught me. The zesty tomato…

‘No crib for a bed,’ says ‘Away in a Manger’ rather puzzlingly, since a crib is a manger. ‘No one…

Britain’s parliamentary democracy is easily mocked: the medievalisms, the men in tights, the ayes to the right. But it has…

January ‘If parliament backs a deal, Britain can turn a corner,’ Theresa May, the Prime Minister, said. The Commons defeated…

You may wonder why I am up at 4.45 a.m. writing this diary when I have a country to run, Queen’s…

Bah humbug Some of the things reported to have been banned this Christmas: — Mulled wine banned from being sold…

One might expect that the challenge of climate change would encourage many young people to take up Stem (science, technology,…

From 16 June 1866: Mr Stanley Jevons, Mr Mill, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer are all agreed that there is…

My father’s imprisonment Sir: Harald Maass’s piece on the plight of Uyghurs in China (‘A cultural genocide’, December 14) captures…

It is worth fixing for posterity the feelings which, on polling day, swirled in the breasts of many who wanted…

Nicola Sturgeon is the only opposition leader who survived the general election. She has emerged far stronger. The Tories had…

There were not many moments of gloom on election night. I spent most of it, so far as I can…

I grew up in a traditional English family, surrounded by cousins, chivvied by aunts, presided over by my grandmother, who…

A moment arrives when one does just have to admit defeat. We shall leave the European Union and there isn’t…

It seems seasonably suitable to celebrate good news. Unfortunately, as in most serviceable stories, for something good to happen, something…

OMG, the end of the decade is almost here, which means it’s time to start reflecting on what on earth…

Another year over and it wasn’t all bad, you know. Here are some of my personal highlights. Best birthday parties:…

It’s the season for kindness and conviviality. In that spirit — and recognising that business, like personal life, rarely follows…

What’s a hero? There are probably at least two answers to that. One is that heroism is a moral quality:…

I can imagine a quiz question along the lines of ‘What do Shylock, Lady Bracknell, Sigmund Freud and Hercule Poirot…

Patrick O’Brian, born Richard Patrick Russ, never wanted his life written, and this passionate wish presents the first hurdle to…

General Jim Mattis ended his remarkable career as a four-star US marine general, and finally as US secretary of defense.…

You may not know the name of Reynolds Stone, but it is almost impossible that you haven’t come across his…

Janis Joplin hated the word ‘star’, but she loved the trappings. As soon as she made serious money she bought…

My own love for this memoir may be all to do with snobbery and self-identification. Moreover, I’ve always thought a…

There was a dinner in Soho to celebrate the publication of John Humphrys’s book, A Day Like Today. John was…

Trained from a young age to be self-effacing, never liking to be the centre of attention, having been traumatised for…

Have you heard the story about the time that Andrew Ridgeley, the 1980s heart-throb, refused to answer the door to…

In the spring of 2008 I spent a fine day in the company of Samantha Power. She had come to…

It’s a slippery word, ‘other’. Taken in one light, it throws up barriers and insists on divisions. It is fearful…

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There may never have been a murder on the real Orient Express, but otherwise Agatha Christie’s depiction of luxury train…

It’s easy to forget that until the late 1980s the notion of an autistic person being able to write a…

This easy-to-read volume of essays, each originally published in the journal of Catholic culture, Annals Australasia, is an important caveat…

For a good deal of this autumn, I was living in Venice. This wasn’t exactly a holiday, I’d like to…

Three million years ago one of our ancestors, Australopithecus africanus, picked up a pebble and took it home to its…

As if on cue, Lemn Sissay’s new series for Radio 4 tackles all those questions we would rather ignore in…

Ballet, like bread sauce and green chartreuse, is often just a Christmas thing and the UK’s national companies plan their…

In childhood, the theme tune to The Box of Delights was the sound of Christmas. The melody was ‘The First…

I’ve joined the Black Panthers. At least I think I have. I took part in an induction ceremony at the…

The key to surviving the next couple of weeks of TV is to avoid like the plague anything that smacks…

As late as the end of the 18th century, only a handful of Europeans had ever seen the legendary Mughal…

There have already been several film adaptations of Louisa May Alcott’s beloved 1868 novel Little Women, and why not? After…

It’s summer in Sydney, so there is an Opera Season. Two productions by the distinguished British director David McVicar –…

I received my Christmas present earlier than usual. It was a message sent via The Spectator from a gentleman who…

In the Rwandan Genocide Memorial gift shop I bought a handy Kinyarwanda–Kiswahili–English phrase book. The tipping point in the decision…

The bonfire burned and burned, choking out black smoke, and when my headache got so bad I could barely see…

Laikipia   After a year of peace and plentiful rain, my farm in Kenya is fantastic. Peace, rain — leave…

Storm clouds may be rumbling over racing’s future financing in terms of gambling legislation but 2019 offered no shortage of…

For Christmas this year I am giving you a double-dummy problem. Too generous, I hear you cry — but better…

They said it  In 2019, who said: 1. ‘You have stolen my dreams and my childhood.’ 2. ‘I didn’t sweat…

Besides the Grand Chess Tour final, an abundance of chess was played at this year’s London Chess Classic. More than…

Black to play. Ilfeld & Vachier-Lagrave–Picot & McShane. Pro-Biz Cup, London 2019. My move. White threatens checkmate with Qc4-g8, so…

In Competition No. 3129 you were invited to submit a poem entitled ‘’Twas the Night Before Brexit’. That seasonal classic…

A quotation (in ODQ), starting on the  appropriate side of the grid, runs clockwise around the perimeter. The other unclued…

The unclued lights are all words derived from names in the work of Charles Dickens.  First prize David Brewis, Windsor,…

We don’t half take a lot for granted. We may look up to the Aussies, kowtow to the Americans and…

Ever since I was a child, I’ve associated Christmas with my mentally disabled brother Chris. Technically, he’s my half-brother —…

Simpson’s in the Strand stopped serving breakfast in 2017, after it had been renovated to stop it smelling of cabbage.…

There is a famous chart which shows the time it took for various technologies to be adopted by 50 million…

Christmas: without being grand and Proustian, this is a season when time present inevitably takes one back to time past.…

From Dame Joan CollinsQ. Invariably, when I escape to the ladies’ room or powder room or restroom (whatever the current…

‘Come off it,’ said my husband when I told him that upcycling was the word of the year. His response…