The good news is that the Turnbull government is gradually adapting to the fact that Hillary Clinton didn’t win the…

A few weeks ago I told you about two particularly nasty and brutal attacks on our local jewelry store in…

Invasion of the farm snatchers As part of its curious strategy of attacking its base, the Turnbull government seems intent…

I acknowledge the Aboriginal peoples who are the Traditional Custodians of the land on which I live. I pay my…

The impending retirement of ABC chairman, Jim Spigelman, presents Malcolm Turnbull with an ideal opportunity to shake up the country’s…

Australia Day always brings out the whingers, the whiners, the crazy Invasion Day anti-nationalists and the almost equally crazy flag-draped…

What do Mary Durack, Christina Stead, A. B. Facey, Xavier Herbert, Les Murray, Thomas Keneally and Clive James have in…

Outrage is the new normal. Sparking outrage − for whatever reason − is the new sin. The number of lazy…

Often, the tone words are delivered in is equally, if not more important, than the words themselves. It’s hardly surprising,…

Paul Johnson once wrote that the ability to say ‘really’ in 12 different ways was the birthright of every true…

An old acquaintance died recently. A friend of mine, who was closer to him than I was, rang to tell…

Alexander Chancellor’s ‘Long Life’ is over; but it was not nearly long enough. I was feeling rather gloomy last Friday,…

Did Winston Churchill, like Donald Trump, also like to ‘grab them by the pussy?’ Last week at the Jaipur Literary…

Another day in northern Nigeria, another Christian village reeling from an attack by the Muslim Fulani herdsmen who used to…

Before the horrified gaze of its militants, the French Socialist party — which has been a major force in French…

British placenames are so good you can read the map for entertainment rather than navigation. Hardington Mande-ville, Bradford Peverell, Carlton…

While he was on the campaign trail, Donald Trump was asked an intriguing question by Bob Lonsberry of WHAM 1180…

A Washington Post interview with ‘senior officials’ in the Trump White House reveals that ‘Trump… feels demoralised that the public’s…

Trump’s rivals More than 1.7m people signed a petition on Parliament’s website demanding that Donald Trump’s state visit be cancelled,…

 ‘A Bill to confer power on the prime minister to notify, under Article 50(2)…’. When it comes to the House…

From ‘Lenders and taxpayers’, The Spectator, 3 February 1917: As to the general financial soundness of the country there can be…

Hotspots Sir: No less than sixteen UN member nations formally ‘forbid Israeli passport holders to enter’. It is, I think,…

Going Dutch Sir: As a Dutch man who lives in Britain, I found it heartening to read two such different…

Trump news Theresa May, the Prime Minister, let it be known that she was ‘very happy’ about having extended an…

This week, 49,000 gay men were granted posthumous pardons. Had Harold Macmillan’s government taken notice of this magazine in 1957…

I am worried about the mental state of many Brexiteers. The author of The Spectator’s weekly Notes, Charles Moore, always…

Imagine if Donald Trump declared that Islam had ‘no place’ in his country, or proposed banning the burqa ‘wherever legally…

I think on balance I would prefer people to demonstrate their opposition to political developments — Brexit, the forthcoming state…

As he left the editorship of The Spectator in March 1984, Alexander Chancellor wrote in this space: ‘When I joined…

President Donald Trump is demolishing his predecessor’s legacy as fast as he can sign executive orders, but one thing for…

‘For heaven’s sake, man, go!’ A week after the Brexit referendum, and that was David Cameron at the despatch box,…

For Paul Keating, there have always been two kinds of politics: ‘high tone’ and ‘low rent’. High tone was to…

It’s terribly difficult to write a novel about soul-searching, and Elif Shafak has come up with a rather clever device…

The great deserts of the world hold a compelling attraction for a rare breed of men who are ‘unwise and…

Tibetans were once fabled warriors. Their empire, at the summit of its power in the eighth century, extended to northern…

James D. Zirin is an experienced litigator as well as the host of a popular television talkshow. In this provocative…

On 7 December 1941, without declaration of war, 350 Japanese carrier-borne aircraft struck at the US Pacific Fleet at anchor…

We know our way around Raymond Carver’s blue-collar cityscapes and Updike’s urban angst and despair. Rick Bass opens a window…

After a long struggle to receive mainstream publication, Paul Auster’s first few novels were a genuinely significant contribution to American…

Blood, they say, is quick on the knife in Albania, where Balkan-style revenge killings, known as giakmarrje (‘blood-takings’), settle ancient…

It’s good to be back in Spook Street, home of the nation’s secret service. From a handful of locations across…

Michelangelo’s Tomb for Pope Julius II: Genesis and Genius edited by Christoph Luitpold Frommel, translated by A. Lawrence Jenkens JrYale,…

Clover Stroud opens her memoir with the crippling bout of post-natal depression that hit after the birth of her fourth…

Bill Schutt has an excellent subject, and he explores it from a promising angle. Cannibalism has long interested zoologists, anthropologists,…

Norse myths are having a moment. Or should I say another moment; one of a long chain of moments, in…

In early January, lastminute.com recommended its top 15 destinations for 2017. In 12th spot, just above Montreal, Croatia and Japan,…

‘All that glisters is not gold,’ wrote Shakespeare (The Merchant of Venice), and you have to hand it to the…

Two divergent approaches to printmaking are on view in an exhibition of graphic work by Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud…

Kids: who’d have them? Certainly no one who has ever been to the opera. If they’re not murdering you, they’re…

As if on cue, The World At One on Monday (Radio 4) ended with a short (too short) interview with…

Before he died aged 44 (probably of a pulmonary embolism, poor chap), Frederick, Prince of Wales, compiled a list of…

It could be the nuttiest idea ever. The protagonist of this American musical is Death, who secretly reprieves a beautiful…

This is one for the brighter kids in the class. Chimerica by British playwright Lucy Kirkwood was first produced by…

Not surprisingly, Reykjavik has become a tourist destination again. Delicious restaurants, all those geysers and, if you’re lucky, the Northern…

My two previous articles dwelt on Richard Réti’s introduction of the so-called hypermodern systems. Characterised by the double fianchetto of White’s…

White to play. This position is from So-Wojtaszek, Wijk aan Zee 2017. White has only one move to win. Can…

In Competition No. 2983, an assignment inspired by W.W. Jacobs’s macabre mini masterpiece ‘The Monkey’s Paw’, you were invited to…

An unclued light is a name shared by two persons, one of whom is fictional. Remaining unclued lights give names…

Thematic names are 1A/22 and 25/34, author of The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure…

Q. My granddaughter has asked to use our barn for her 21st birthday dance in June. We can only sleep…

The Waverly Inn is the house restaurant of Vanity Fair magazine in New York City. It is part-owned by Graydon…

When I saw an email from Lucy, the lady who has the unenviable task of editing my copy each week,…

Dr Mindlin called. I needed cheering up? If I fancied a week in Antigua as his guest I should be…

Waiting for my husband in a Rome hotel, I was reduced to reading some of the weekend newspaper supplements. The…

As if by magic, a sign that I am doing the right thing by moving out of London arrived in…

Few things in sport are more thrilling than a great racehorse giving its all. That’s why the death of that…

I feel conflicted about Jon Platt, the parent at the centre of the court case about unauthorised school absences. On…

Away from frosty Britain, lecturing my way across the Atlantic to Rio de Janeiro, life has been dominated more by…