The memorial service for Bill Leak at Sydney’s Town Hall on a grey and rainy day was a moving, entertaining,…

Bill Leak used to say that Picasso changed his life. He was, he said, ‘a troubled youth’ of 16 years…

The government deserves two cheers for its changes to Section 18C which may do something towards restoring free speech. But…

If you ask anyone in a Western nation whether he or she believes in democracy as a system of government,…

Mulga Creek Farm Sept 15th 2026 Dear Sis, I thought I would write a long letter this time seeing as…

You know that lovely warm glow you get on a summer’s evening when it’s still 42 degrees outside and you’re…

The rule of law has been a trending topic this year, both in Australia and overseas. Much of the discussion…

It really works! When the big end of town puts its mind to it (along with a few million dollars),…

With Malcolm Turnbull hanging on by a one-seat majority federally, the devastating result in the Western Australian state election leaves…

When the Rudd government greatly expanded the Renewable Energy Target in 2009, turning an innocuous Howard government initiative into the…

In what I like to think of as The Spectator’s back garden — most people call it St James’s Park…

  Washington, DC I hate to admit it, but I think I’m falling in love with Sean Spicer. No doubt…

I never met Martin McGuinness, but I was certainly affected by him from an early age. His decisions, and those…

The civil war in Syria, and the resulting displacement of half the population, has been the tragedy of our times.…

Ever since a Twitter troll was elected 45th President of the United States, the Twitterati has agonised over who to…

It can be cruel, the way politics plays out. At the very moment George Osborne was telling the bemused staff…

When a humanitarian tragedy disappears from our newspapers, there are two possibilities: that the crisis is over and life for……

Home Theresa May, the Prime Minister, said that on 29 March she would send a letter to Donald Tusk, the……

So I am feeling a bit better about my lack of radio experience. These are exciting times for free movement……

Last week many commentators drew on the Ides (15th) of March, the anniversary of Julius Caesar’s death in 44 BC, to……

From ‘The Russian revolution’, 24 March 1917: Even now, though the Revolution is young, the Russians have proved that they are fit……

Princes among men British DJ Mark Dezzani was hoping to be elected prince of Seborga, a self-proclaimed independent state in……

Bad laws Sir: Now that a couple of ACTU present and former leaders have come out and declared the efficacy…

‘Should I just have done with it and tell them they’re a bunch of tossers?’ I was on my way……

The best thing about being a Remainer is obviously the dinner parties, where we all sit around being incredibly well-heeled……

Shortly before agreeing, early last year, to pay token back taxes on a decade’s worth of UK-generated profits, Google also……

There’s one thing that bothers me a lot about the letter sent by ‘more than 70’ MPs to the director-general…

We keep being incited to find it heartwarming that Martin McGuinness and Ian Paisley were known as the Chuckle Brothers.…

Michael Fishwick’s new novel tells the story of a young man called Robbie, who has been uprooted from his London…

I can recall exactly where I was 40 years ago when I didn’t buy the first issue — or ‘prog’…

The business of banking (from the Italian word banco, meaning ‘counter’) was essentially Italian in origin. The Medici bank, founded…

Boualem Sansal’s prophetic novel very clearly derives its lineage from George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. A totalitarian surveillance state, a fundamentalist…

The Reformation is such a huge, sprawling historical subject that it makes sense, in this the 500th anniversary of Martin…

Alone with her father’s dead body, Olive Piper says, ‘I don’t know anything, except what I feel, and how can…

Trailing rave US reviews, fan letters from Yann Martel and Khaled Hosseini and a reputation as ‘Doctor Zhivago for the…

Talleyrand was 76 when he took up the post of French ambassador in London in 1830. Linda Kelly deals only…

The centenary of the Russian Revolution has arrived right on time, just as the liberal democratic world is getting a…

In Yoko Tawada’s surreal and beguiling novel we meet three bears: mother, daughter and grandson. But there will be no…

It’s fair to say Sonja Hansen’s life has stalled. Forties, tall and ungainly, veteran of failed relationships, she’s an uncomfortable…

Kahlil Gibran was 40 years old, a short — he was just 5’3” — dapper man with doleful eyes and…

There was a nasty sound of pens being sharpened last week as Royal Ballet runaway Sergei Polunin prepared to unveil…

Over 20 years ago I wrote about Giambattista Tiepolo in The Spectator. Shortly afterwards I went to visit Howard Hodgkin…

Two films for you this week, one of which is surprisingly good and one of which does not surprise in…

When Wireless Nights hit the Radio 4 airwaves in the spring of 2012, I was not at all sure about…

Girls creator Lena Dunham has received criticism from all sides. Detractors on the right see her as an exhibitionist provocateur.…

As we know from all those newspaper articles and actress interviews, there’s a scandalous lack of high-profile British TV dramas…

There’s a moment in the finale of Beethoven’s Appassionata sonata when the frenzied piano writing turns unexpectedly jolly. The late…

Ceci n’est pas une Partenope. Forget the warring classical kingdoms of Naples and Cumae: this is surrealist Paris in the…

No one should complain that My Country; a work in progress is a grim night out. It’s rare for a…

Australians have a proprietorial interest in Captain James Cook but of course he belongs to the whole world. That is…

Everyone knows him, but hardly anyone can pronounce his name — which is why Jacek Pszczola is universally called Pepsi.…

Paul Keres is the only chess player to have appeared on the euro currency, his face adorning the two-euro piece…

White to play. This position is from Mareco-Nakamura, Pro-League, chess.com 2017. Can you spot White’s winning coup?Answers to me at…

In Competition No. 2990 you were invited to submit a poem of 16 lines in which the lines begin with…

The solutions to twelve clues, all of which lack definition, have to be adapted as the title indicates before the…

The unclued lights, including 28/3 in its English translation, are compositions by Carl Nielsen, (i.e. pieces of 8 Down).  First…

Q. We had some people up from London for a very long weekend. We put on an extra-special do, costing…

Paris used to be the most self-confident city in the world. Brash, assertive, boastful: Manhattan claimed to be the best.…

A cloudless sky, crunchy spring snow, longer, warmer days. I’ve finally got in some good skiing, twisting around moguls like…

Sir Roger Gale sounds like an old-bufferish knight of the shires, but he once worked as a disc-jockey on a…

‘Mesdames et messieurs, allow me to introduce you to your meals,’ said the waiter. Oh lordy, I thought. Here we…

In America, an argument has broken out among journalists, writers and intellectuals in the aftermath of the presidential election about…

After landing at Gatwick, the plane taxied for five minutes or so and then came to a halt in the…