After several weeks of being caught on the hop by the severity of the bushfires, it appears Scott Morrison has…

After weeks of tough negotiating and heart-wrenching self-examination, I am delighted to announce that I am embarking on a transition…

A crusade to save capitalism from itself?

Scientists will soon be turning carbon dioxide into gold

A rock icon refuses to play the woke tune

The return of Stalinism

On climate ‘denialism’ and the renewables industry

Are the politicians planning to crown one of their own?

Macron has fallen under Boris’s spell

The latest fad involves eating your way to better mental health

Ten years on, the Arab Spring’s legacy is hopelessness and helplessness

In a few years’ time, there could be no more wild salmon in Britain

‘Epiphany.’ That was the word that Robert Rowland, soon-to-be-ex-MEP for the Brexit party, used to describe his discovery of the…

When did job-hunting become such an ordeal?

Driving home through Kent the other day, I was struck by how much the topography has changed. When I was…

The news this week could easily have led with the deaths of 14 Afghan and Iraqi migrants in the English…

Home The Duke of Sussex left England to join his wife, Meghan, in Canada. This followed an agreement that stripped…

I start the week by going through my iPhone to delete the numbers of former friends. It sounds depressing, but…

Parliamentary motions The government floated the idea of moving the House of Lords permanently to York.    Until it was found…

There are as many explanations for Harry and Meghan’s problems with the royal family as there are commentators. May as…

By Leo McKinstry, The Spectator, 17 August 2002: The modern MEP is a titan of tedium, a figure whose every…

Royal travails Sir: The travails of the royal family outlined by Penny Junor (‘In check’, 18 January) may be public…

Despite huge public pressure, I shall not be applying to be director-general of the BBC. It was kind of Tony…

In the past 40 years, only two leaders of the opposition have gone on to become prime minister: Tony Blair…

Whoever becomes the next director-general of the BBC should take a close look at last week’s Question Time. It came…

It was a clear and icy night at home in Derbyshire last week. I love these times and, before bed,…

Should Bernie Sanders become the Democratic presidential nominee, expect the media to overuse these sprightly English expressions: ‘between a rock…

Seven years ago, when HS2 was still officially costed at £33 billion, I wrote that I was looking forward to…

In 1973, a social psychologist from Stanford perpetrated one of the greatest scientific
frauds of recent history. Its consequences still resonate today, says Andrew Scull

Probably most of the world is bilingual, or more than bilingual. It is common in many countries to speak a…

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606–69) is not only the presiding genius of the Dutch golden age of painting, but one…

It is sometimes said that intelligence failures are often failures of assessment rather than collection. This is especially so when…

Doddy! Thou shouldst be living at this hour. England hath need of tickling sticks. So also hath the rest of…

Travel writing is ‘the red light district of literature’, as Colin Thubron aptly put it, a space where anything goes.…

Jeet Thayil’s previous novel, The Book of Chocolate Saints, an account of a fictional Indian artist and poet told in…

Poor Cassy. The Miss Austen of this novel’s title is Cassandra, Jane’s elder sister. She was to have married Thomas…

Late in this final volume of a tantalising trilogy, we hear that its enigmatic boy hero ‘would never tell you…

Midway through Crisis of Conscience, the massive new compendium about US whistleblowers by the journalist Tom Mueller, I wanted to…

Alert to the combination of a controversial issue and a brilliant writer, Serpent’s Tail have bought This is a Pleasure,…

The atrocities of the concentration camp at Auschwitz–Birkenau are now universally known, but it is still almost beyond belief that…

When the brilliant American biographer, Robert A. Caro, first approached the task of writing a biography of the 36th President…

Come January, when the proper pop stars are all in the gym working off the pounds before they emerge, blinking…

Known throughout his life as Dick, Gerardus Dusseldorp had just come to Australia and created Civil and Civic (later Lend…

on the history, power and beauty of infographics

Picasso collected papers. Not just sheets of the exotic handmade stuff — though he admitted being seduced by them —…

‘Popular’ classical music is a relative term. Show me someone who thinks Beethoven is surefire box office, and I’ll show…

Armando Iannucci’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield is a romp told at a lick, and while it’s fun and…

Of all the many things I’ve learned from the radio so far this decade, the most deranging is that the…

Falling In Love Again features two of the 20th century’s best-known sex athletes. Ron Elisha’s drama covers a long drunken…

Sky’s latest bingewatch potboiler Cobra can’t quite make up its mind whether it wants to be an arch, knowing House…

Did any of you know that most of the 20th-century monsters — Stalin, Mao, Hitler, Ceausescu, Duvalier, and even the…

For the last four years of her long life, this upstairs room and this magnificent sea view belonged to Mrs…

‘Time to begin your adventure with Mr Benn!’ said the letter that came through my door, in a big loopy…

Racing’s New Year began well with the award of OBEs to both Nicky Henderson and Paul Nicholls, showing that they…

Sad to say, the length of time you’ve been playing bridge is no indication of how good you are. Indeed,…

Cars, computers and cadavers: taking them apart is normally reserved for experts and the pathologically curious. In his new book,…

Rowson-Yermolinsky, World Open 2002. This position arose after a tactical skirmish. White has only one good way to meet the…

In Competition No. 3132 you were invited to submit an extract from one of the following books: Noah Gets Naked:…

28 2, born in 36, is best known for 10 41 (four words). He also produced a 19, 11 (two…

The unclued lights can be linked with GOLDEN, at 30D, which had to be highlighted. The trio is GOLDEN EYE…

I’ve been reading a new biography of George Orwell that’s been published to coincide with the 70th anniversary of his…

Outside mathematics, the word ‘commute’ can mean two things. Mostly it refers to the act of making a daily journey…

Q. When my mother-in-law visits, she puts newspaper on a dining chair before sitting down. I’m so speechless that someone…

In clubs and other admirable locations throughout the civilised world, glasses have been raised and toasts proposed. But this was…

When Francis Hurt inherited the Renishaw estate in 1777, he changed his surname to Sitwell. His eight-year-old son and heir…