So it seems that somebody finally picked up that pristine copy of The Spectator Australia that is usually left untouched…

Here at the United Nations Human Rights Council, we pride ourselves on getting the job done in double-quick time. But…

Has Flipper finally flipped? After centuries of challenging dogs for the Mans’ Best Friend guernsey, an incident in New Zealand…

Abstractionitis revisited In its recently published survey, Leading for Change: A Blueprint for Cultural Diversity and Inclusive Leadership Revisited, the…

Was Karl Max over-rated as a thinker? It was hard not to ask that (provocative) question as I read the…

If you were trapped at an upper window of a burning building and a fireman appeared at the top of…

The former NSW Premier Neville Wran had an interesting take on the true meaning of working class culture. Having grown…

When Amnesty International concerned itself with campaigning on behalf of individual and identifiable political prisoners of regimes of whatever political…

In the seventy years since the rebirth of the Jewish state, the relocation of the US embassy to Jerusalem is…

Good news for Australia in Beijing this week, if a mild setback for Kiwis. In the twelve months to February…

The happy marriage between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will have formidable and long-lasting consequences. Australians took the occasion to…

A fortnight before Philip Hammond delivered his last Budget, the chief executive of the NHS gave a speech making the…

In all the agonising about Islamism, and what to do about it, it would be a mistake to forget a…

Politics and sport should never mix is the hoary old chestnut — but they always do. It’s a thrilling concoction.…

I meet Bernard-Henri Lévy in a colossally luxurious hotel on a tree-lined avenue just behind the Elysée Palace. The French…

When my husband, John, was born in 1946, doctors were the chief agents of adoption. His mother was young, single,…

I was collecting my daughter from school when my path was blocked by an enormous black Range Rover sitting in…

When asked to describe in three words what it means to win Badminton, the world’s most challenging and prestigious equestrian…

A sterix, te amamus! For those not lucky enough to learn their Latin from the dazzling René Goscinny and Albert…

Soon after he became his party’s leader, David Cameron spoke dismissively of Conservatives who ‘bang on about Europe’. He had…

Home Marks & Spencer announced plans to close 100 of its 1,035 shops by 2022, hoping to move a third…

Monday morning. Sitting in Ed the physio’s waiting room. He is theatreland’s go-to man for fractured bones and torn muscles…

Matthew Parris feels that he has become a genuine Remainiac, and kindly readers, fearing for his mental health, have been…

From ‘The new crusade’, 25 May 1918: It is curious to think how great must soon have been the spiritual…

Desperation in Gaza Sir: I must respond to Rod Liddle’s opinion on Gaza (‘Why this deluded affection for the Palestinians?’,…

Michael Gove wants to punish those who use wood-burning stoves and possibly even open fires. It would be hard to…

 Washington, DC It was a petulant Donald Trump who appeared at a White House press briefing on Tuesday with the…

Here’s something to bear in mind over the next few years. Be wary of taking advice on social justice from…

I do not know whether the Speaker of the House of Commons called the present Leader of the House a…

During a dozen years in Belfast I collected a number of political coffee mugs, hailing from both sides of the…

If Ben Broadbent’s Daily Telegraph interview last week was the launch of a bid for the governorship of the Bank…

Even the most cursory glance at the classical period reveals the central place that birds played in the religious and…

This is a biography that begins with a bang, swiftly followed by puddles of blood, shrieks of ‘Murder!’ and a…

Benjamin Netanyahu is one of the most unloved and unlovable figures in Israeli politics, a solid finish in a competitive…

We all tell stories about ourselves, every one of us. ‘I’m a useless cook.’ ‘Spiders don’t scare me.’ Not all…

In 1983, Soviet spies skulked in our midnight streets to check the lights were out. The Kremlin, convinced the West…

Someone has gone to a lot of trouble choosing the jacket cover of Robert Hilburn’s authorised biography of Paul Simon…

‘I didn’t realise we were carbon,’ said a friend to whom I mentioned this book. She was the first of…

From Aphra Behn to Virginia Woolf, women who make a living by their pens have frequently felt the need to…

How can you defend a man you hate? John Fairfax, in his Blind Defence (Little Brown, £16.99), explores this dilemma.…

A most excellent fellow, Roger Allam. On the stage he brings dignity to all he does, in the noblest traditions…

What is the Royal Academy? This question set me thinking as I wandered through the crowds that celebrated the opening…

No wonder we have a problem with classical music in this country. The week started in celebration. The stats are…

‘Do you ever imagine your audience?’ was a question thrown at James Ward, creator and presenter of The Boring Talks…

Every time a friend succeeds, I die a little, so you can imagine how sickened I was by the magisterial…

The Bridge’s big summer show is Nightfall by prize-winning newcomer Barney Norris. Widowed Jenny wants her grown-up kids, Lou and…

The Royal Ballet’s 2016 Frankenstein was a masterclass in how not to make narrative dance and the news that Liam…

There is no such thing as a moderately good performance of Madama Butterfly, or, to be more precise, it’s not…

Edie tells the story of an 84-year-old woman who wants to fulfil a girlhood ambition by climbing a Scottish mountain.…

A remarkable achievement; since its inception in 2002, Pinchgut Opera has staged 20 rarely performed operas, many for the first…

Pegasus Bridge, Normandy   We’re taking morning coffee at the Café Gondrée, which skirts the bridge. It still belongs to…

Six Partido de Resina (formerly Pablo Romero) bulls for Rafaelillo, Thomas Dufau and Juan Leal. The first corrida of the…

‘What a fabulous tan, where did you get it? said one of my fellow lunch guests as we entered the…

In his days as a novice jockey in the West Country, Bob Davies, who was to ride more than 900…

Martin Hoffman, who died last week, had an extraordinary life. Born in Prague in 1929, he was the only member…

On 10 May, Britain’s most famous grandmaster, Nigel Short, chose the pages of the Times to announce his surprise candidacy…

White to play. This position is from Short-Muir, Gibraltar Masters 2004. How did Short bring his kingside attack to a…

In Competition No. 3049 you were invited to submit a poem about a bromance.   Pairings including Friedrich and Karl,…

One unclued light is the title (two words) of a work by a person whose name is formed by two…

Unclued lights were five fictional TOMs and their authors: JONES (14A) and FIELDING (8D), SAWYER (16A) and TWAIN (35A), BROWN (41A)…

As a conservative, I wasn’t sure what to make of the news that the BBC was adapting A Very English…

In the shadow of the Shard, not far from Borough Market, is a £1 billion public artwork, an allegorical sculpture…

Q. We often take friends to what my husband calls a ‘poncey’ pub which has won numerous awards and where…

Words, words, words. Over a couple of sessions, we drank a selection of serious wines, starting with a Cantemerle ’05.…

I’m often annoyed by like being misused in different ways. (In place of as, for example: ‘Like I expected, he was…