Abbott delves into Down Under
‘He who controls the past, controls the future’ wrote George Orwell in his classic work, 1984. This is something Tony…
The necessity of love
Everyone has been preoccupied with television and the way in the wake of Covid we have seen the streamers (and…
Aussie life
My local post office is one of four on Sydney’s lower north shore scheduled for closure before Christmas, and everybody…
Language
John writes to ask about the word ‘noisome’? Does it (he asks) have anything to do with noise? The answer…
Our Prime Chameleon goes to Washington
And poses as a petty bourgeois rather than an heroic Che Guevara
Datageddon: Britain’s stats have become dangerously unreliable
There were cheers in the Treasury last month as the nation’s statisticians discovered a spare £3 billion down the back…
Cullen skink is comfort in a bowl
They say not to judge a book by its cover – but what about judging a recipe by its name?…
Landlords need protecting too
Do you know how much faeces 30 dogs can produce over a couple of years? I have some idea because…
How to drink sake
There is a fellow called Anthony Newman who is fascinated by drink, as a consumer, a producer and an intellectual.…
LSD was a fuss about nothing
The flight from Nice to Bristol was packed. As soon as the doors closed I spotted a hummingbird hawk-moth bumping…
Trump should beware of backing regime change in Venezuela
Few Americans find much to celebrate in the Iraq War or the intervention in Libya. Regimes were successfully changed, but…
Let’s face it, Sleeping Beauty is a bit of a bore
Let’s face it, The Sleeping Beauty runs the high risk of being a bit of a bore. A wonderfully inventive…
Dimes Square on screen
I can’t watch films anymore without looking at my phone. If I watch a film on my laptop, I’ll be…
The war over my grass verges
Hanging a pair of gates at the rear of the house gave us so much satisfaction, it suddenly seemed strange…
Perfection: Hampstead Theatre’s The Assembled Parties reviewed
The Assembled Parties, by Richard Greenberg, is a rich, warm family comedy that received three Tony nominations in 2013 following…
How the Northern line brought T.E. Lawrence to The Spectator
If only the Northern line could get its act together. Last week saw further buffing of its reputation as the…
‘People can’t take a joke these days’: Michael Heath on wokeness, The Spectator and turning 90
When I joined The Spectator, the office was in Bloomsbury, in a four-storey Georgian house, and the further down the…
There is little sadder than the death of a language
The last Yana-speaker in the world died in 1916. When Ishi was born, the Yana were still a small but…
Peak wackiness: Lanthimos’s Bugonia reviewed
Bugonia is the latest film from Yorgos Lanthimos (The Favourite, The Lobster, Poor Things) and it’s about a conspiracy theorist…
Letters: The difficulties of reporting on Gaza
Future proof Sir: Douglas Murray asks why Enoch Powell’s ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech understated the problems (‘Imagine what Enoch Powell…
