Style and substance
One of the New York Met Gala stylists is sharing tips for wearing a corset to an evening do. ‘Breathe…
Letters
The leader we need? Sir: Matthew Parris excoriates Boris Johnson for administrative incompetence, mendacity, personal immorality and utter lack of…
Elderflower
There’s an old saying that English summertime begins when the frothy heads of elderflowers appear in hedgerows – and ends…
Into thin air
Mark Vanhoenacker dreams of my nightmares. Ever since he was a young boy, he fantasised about piloting airplanes. Ever since…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. A close friend, who has lost most of her income in recent years, has done something disfiguring to a…
My novice night at the opera
Last Saturday I went to the opera for only the second time in my life. This was at the invitation…
Real life
The LED streetlamp outside my house was fitted with a ‘compromise’ shield acceptable to a vegan that looked as if…
Bridge
When lockdown struck, high-standard online bridge tournaments sprang up and with them a multitude of cheats, world champions among them,…
Letter from Transylvania
For the first time since the pandemic, Prince Charles has returned to Transylvania. When he visits the small village of…
‘We can show these crimes to the planet’
Ukraine’s chief prosecutor on her country’s quest for justice
First strike
The RMT union is threatening strikes to bring the country to a halt. Such activities have a long history in…
Diary
To Windsor for Garter Day, the first since 2019. With a strong voice and smiles for us all, the Queen…
Modest expectations
A Little Hope, Ethan Joella’s debut novel, is about the lives of a dozen or so ordinary people who live…
The silent muse
Jane Morris, the Pre-Raphaelites’ favourite model, remains as enigmatic as ever, says Frances Wilson
A phoenix from the ashes
‘Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.’ Albert Einstein’s deft avoidance of the question put to…
Battered but unbowed
Don’t bring a bottle. Your chances of finding a party in full swing down those chilly corridors are close to…
Witchy women
I would guess that contemporary pagans have a love-hate relationship with Ronald Hutton. With books such as The Triumph of…
High life
He is a rich English lord with a very large house and his wife is a beautiful American with a…
The Spectator’s Notes
Even before the ECHR injunction, the bishops had issued their anathema. All 25 of them in the House of Lords…
Low life
I’m house-sitting for the foreign correspondent while he attends the funeral of his beloved father-in-law Toto, the last of the…
A long, dark shadow
When the 13 colonies of the United States declared independence in 1776, the first country to recognise the new nation…
Johnson’s loss of authority
There is an uneasy truce in the Tory party. The 148 MPs who voted no confidence in Boris Johnson last…
