Low life
I’ve often wondered whether Her Majesty the Queen glances through The Spectator from time to time. And if she does,…
Special delivery
A youngish couple leave London and drive off excitedly to make a fresh start in more rural surroundings. They demonstrate…
Barometer
Long to reign over us The Queen is the world’s current longest-serving monarch, but two in history have had longer…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. In order to raise money for a worthwhile cause, I have agreed to open my garden for the first…
The Spectator’s Notes
Like many people who do not share his views, I have felt intermittent admiration for Peter Tatchell over the past…
How to win my vote
The repeated injunction that we should all ‘move on’ from worrying our silly heads about partygate is as otiose as…
Art for the people
When I mentioned the subject of this book to someone reasonably well-informed about 20th-century British art, the response was: ‘Isn’t…
One out of five
The point at which the heart sinks in this exhibition is, unfortunately, right at the outset. That’s where we meet…
Queen and country
Rarely has a public figure taken a promise so seriously as the vow that Her Majesty the Queen made on…
In defence of masculinity
Anyone who has passed through an education in thepast decade will have encountered the term ‘toxic masculinity’. It is one…
2558: Blonde, 78
Unclued lights can be grouped into three triplets, each associated in a different sense with a keyword to be discovered,…
From the mouse to the elephant
Humans are so comfortable with their self-declared dominance over the rest of life, appointing themselves titular head of an entire…
Going public
It is high time we did justice to the treasures of the royal collection, says Jack Wakefield
Of course airlines should have started rehiring months ago — but they didn’t
I sincerely hope you’re not reading this on a holiday flight that’s sitting on the tarmac with no indication as…
Nice
‘That’s nice,’ said my husband, taking a Nice biscuit with his coffee. It was his little joke. The biscuit is…
‘Famine is part of Russia’s strategy’
President Zelensky’s economic adviser on the reality of Putin’s tactics
Wishful drinking
I fancy myself as a bit of an oenophile and during the lockdowns, when my local branch of Majestic was…
The closing of the Chinese mind
I was born in Nanjing five years after the Tiananmen Square protests. By then, records of the demonstrations and the…
Call that a party?
The ancients certainly knew how to put on a celebration. Let us hope the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee comes up to…
Boris could be toppled by accident
Every Tory leader fears a plot against them. Their paranoia isn’t helped by the layout of Westminster, which lends itself…
Dubonnet
The Platinum Jubilee celebrations look like boom time for the drinks industry, with various whisky, gin and port brands all…
A tea fit for a Queen
I went to a garden party at Buckingham Palace once. It is coloured in my memory like childhood. There are…
Portrait of the week
Home The Jubilee for the Queen’s 70 years on the throne was marked by two days of public holiday, 16,000…
