Aussie Language
Talking to Peta Credlin on Sky News I coined a new expression, ‘language communists’. I used to call the bullies…
Money, money – and music
Art is supposed to emerge from poverty but extreme wealth does not preclude talent, as the history of composers proves. By Richard Bratby
Gosforth Cross
In the small Cumbrian village of Gosforth, in the graveyard of St Mary’s Church, there is a sandstone cross which…
Bring on the tissues
Not one, but two British films this week, one that’s only being screened at the cinema (if you’re brave enough)…
The Spectator’s Notes
Anyone who thinks Boris Johnson lacks statecraft should pay attention to Dominic Cummings’s attacks on him. They often to seem…
Escapist comedy at its very best
Lady Sylvia is a gorgeous aristocrat whose hand is sought by the charming Dorante whom she has never met. To…
Portrait of the week
Home On the eve of the day that most coronavirus restrictions were to be lifted, the Prime Minister and Chancellor…
Letters
Out of Afghanistan Sir: Boyd Tonkin’s review of Anna Aslanyan’s Dancing on Ropes highlights the post-war abandonment of local Afghan…
Barometer
Waiting Games What did Japan, and the world, look like the last time Tokyo held the Olympics in 1964? —…
Damascene moment
Imad’s Syrian Kitchen is an eyrie off Carnaby Street, a once-famous road which seems to exist nowadays to sell trainers…
World gone lazy
‘Where’s the car?’ said my wife Alice, interrupting my Zoom meeting on Saturday morning. ‘It’s where you left it,’ I…
Can the Lions prise open the strong Boks?
You would need a digger to explore the levels of irony in a Springbok chief slagging off an opponent’s dirty…
The clever radical who led the City’s transformation
It’s a vivid example of unintended consequences that the swimming-pool builders of southern England should owe so much to Sir…
Dear Mary
Q. My beloved wife has been studying Chinese metaphysics for 18 months. Our house and garden have been badly neglected…
Diary
You always remember when a prime minister calls you to ask you to take on a new role, and you…
Could she be the new Sade?
Some years ago, when I was the music editor of a newspaper, I called a number of historians of black…
Will England pull out of the World Cup?
I wonder if the moral guardians of our country — the England football team — intend to participate in the…
Leather and prunella
‘Oh, yes,’ said my husband, enthusiastically, ‘a loathsome disease. The tongue goes black and dry.’ He was referring to an…
It’s who you know
All the world’s on stage again so where to go to for insight into what to see and why? Podcasts,…
The totalitarian handbook
How to Become a Tyrant(Netflix) is ideal history TV for Generation No Attention Span. Presented in six bite-sized chunks by…
On the cards
Back when Boris Johnson was on a mission to stop identity cards being used in Britain, he made a very…
