The Spectator
Australia
Whitewashing Whitlam
The tears flowed in time for the seven o’clock news, a bizarre long march all the way from new parliament…
Australian Columnists
Australian notes
Among Gough Whitlam’s greatest moments were his acceptance both of his Dismissal in November 1975 and of his overwhelming rejection…
Diary
I am an atheist, not one of those leftie agro ones. I respect people who have faith; I just don’t…
Australian Features
Freedom’s just another word
Tony Abbott claims freedom-of-expression is hard-wired into the Coalition’s DNA. But is it?
Polishing Gough
The last great, failed moderniser has gone. More of that in a moment. For now, let’s talk about me. I…
Whitlam – my part in his downfall
The wit and charm of Whitlam could not disguise his serious flaws
The difference a day or a few foetal grams can make
The problem with Zoe’s Law is that it isn’t derived from any medical or philosophical principle
Features
Death to hipsters
Fashion cults are nothing new, but this one was exceptionally silly and unoriginal
The Week
Portrait of the week
Home A hundred firemen could not prevent wooden cooling towers at Didcot B gas-fuelled power station in Oxfordshire from burning…
From the archives
From ‘Topics of the day’, The Spectator, 24 October 1914: That spies are a great danger at the present time,…
Australian letters
Cultured Brisbane Sir: Re Culture Buff 11 October. One sore point. I could do without the patronising remark about Brisbane…
Books
The Unbeaten vs the Unbeatable
If you want Sharpe-like drama, go for Bernard Cornwell. For Eurocentric revisionism, go for Tim Clayton. If you’re short of time, there’s Brendan Simms’s 80 pager. But in a class of its own is former soldier Robert Kershaw making ‘order out of disorder’
Dwelling in the past
A review of The Making of the Home, by Judith Flanders, and Common People, by Alison Light. Both books are absorbing but it’s Light’s history of subsistence living that I’ll want to read twice
Poison pen letters
Literary Rivals: Feuds and Antagonisms in the World of Books, by Richard Bradford, is a compendium that never sees the roses for the thorns
Arts
East up West
Plus: East is East is one of the gems of the theatrical repertoire, especially in this near-flawless Theatre Royal Stratford East production
Screwed up
In I due Foscari at the Royal Opera House, however, nightmares were more artistic than psychological
Life
Baku beyond
The irrepressible Fabiano Caruana has added to his laurels by sharing first prize in the Baku Grand Prix, which finished…
No. 337
White to play. This position is from Gelfand-Andreikin, Baku 2014. What is White’s best move? Answers to me at The…
Autumn villanelle
In Competition No. 2870 you were invited to submit an autumn villanelle. Stephen Fry likes villanelles. The form inspired him…
2185: Over the sea — and bridge
Two unclued lights describe the location of the others, individually or as a pair. One of these unclued lights does…
To 2182: Tops
The unclued lights are ROMAN CROWNS. First prize Philip Hawkins, Wirksworth, Matlock, Derbyshire Runners-up G.H.Willetts, London SW19; Chris Edwards, Pudsey,…
Learning compromise the hard way
Politicians don’t just compromise because they’re cynics. They do it to get things done
