Dear Mary: How do we tie down an invitation to our friends’ holiday home?
Q. Some friends of ours have an amazing house on the coast in Kenya. Every time we see them they…
Who would want to be a housebuilder in Britain?
In a radio discussion of the Renters’ Rights Act which passed into law this week, I heard ‘Britain’s housing emergency’…
My portable charger obsession
A femtosecond, derived from the Danish word femte meaning ‘fifteen’, is a unit of time in the International System of…
Hex appeal: the rise of middle-class witches
In King James VI of Scotland’s Daemonologie, written in 1597, he vigorously encourages witch-hunting and, in particular, the tossing of…
Mystic Milei proves ‘austerity’ needn’t be a dirty word
Javier Milei’s election in 2023 was a repudiation of decades of Peronist turmoil, corruption and inflation. Milei offered shock therapy,…
Minimum wage was a mistake
As others, including Nigel Farage, were quick to point out, Sarah Pochin got it wrong. She uttered words which, shorn…
How the occult captured the modern mind
The British science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, proposed a ‘law of science’ in 1968:…
Which party has the crypto factor?
He helped ‘break’ the Bank of England – but now Scott Bessent is helping to shape its future. As a…
The day James Blunt stripped off in front of me
The beautiful British actress Samantha Eggar has died in LA. I hope that will be the last in a spate…
Portrait of the week: Hurricane hits Jamaica, Plaid reigns in Caerphilly and sex offender gets £500 to leave Britain
Home An Iranian man who arrived on a small boat and was deported to France on 19 September under the…
Spectator Competition: Bad advice
Comp. 3423 invited you to submit a passage about a command or suggestion from literature being taken too literally. I…
Satanic verses: the origins of Roman Catholic black metal
In his youth in the early 2000s, Emil Lundin became obsessed with the idea of recording the world’s ‘most evil…
Beaujolais – a refuge for impecunious wine lovers
With burgundy prices going through the roof, enthusiasts are flocking to the neighbouring region, which few have taken seriously until now
Is Reform racist?
Sarah Pochin’s gonna take a lot of coachin’. You can’t just turn up on the telly and say you’re sick…
Unesco are idiots
Of all the moronic decisions made by cultural organisations over the past 50 years, probably the most insulting and retrograde…
The gym, the hairdresser, the campaign trail: the inside story of Kemi’s first year
On the day of the local elections in May, when the Tories suffered a historic setback, Kemi Badenoch went to…
What makes a ‘survivor’?
Are you a survivor? We are not, luckily, all Gloria Gaynors. She declared in 1979: ‘I’ve got all my life…
The Romans would have known that AI can’t replace architects
Architects are thrilled about AI, confident that it will take us into an exciting new world at the flick of…
The joy of Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing
If you didn’t already know that Down Cemetery Road was based on a novel Mick Herron wrote before the Slough…
Don’t fear the bogeyman
Britain is beset by a bogeyman. A giant, mystical beast that the public are forever being threatened with. Remember last…
Bernard Cornwell: ‘I don’t believe in writer’s block’
They say never meet your heroes, but Bernard Cornwell didn’t disappoint. Knowing I’m a superfan, the events team at The…
A cracking little 1967 opera that we ought to see more often
Ravel’s L’heure espagnole is set in a clockmaker’s shop and the first thing you hear is ticking and chiming. It’s…
