The rebirth of a nation
Lord Macaulay wrote that ‘during the century and a half which followed the Conquest there is, to speak strictly, no…
Pinged
‘Ping, ping, ping went the bell,’ sang my husband, making his eyes wide and jigging in his best imitation of…
Bridge
If someone had told me in February 2020 that virtually the whole world would be going into lockdown for well…
Cuba libre
Havana There is an astonishing patience in the Cuban people, born of endless waiting. When a store has, say, chicken,…
Letter from Italy
Dante’s Beach, Ravenna My fiery Italian wife Carla is not just a passionate patriot but also a devout Catholic, and…
Barometer
Space cadets Richard Branson joined a test flight on his Virgin Galactic craft to the edge of space, to promote…
Boiling point
Professional kitchens have always seemed like pressure cookers: hot, sweaty, stressful. The caricature of a head chef is angry, sweary,…
The Spectator’s Notes
A special animus is aimed at Priti Patel, perhaps because the combination of being Indian, female and firmly Tory is…
The march of the unwhippables
‘Nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won,’ wrote the Duke of Wellington after…
Low life
Where the 36th (Ulster) Division attacked at 7.30 a.m. on the first morning of the Battle of the Somme in…
Best behaviour
The Prime Minister is urging citizens not to throw caution to the winds when lockdown ends on 19 July but…
Finding le mot juste
No one ever raised a statue to a translator, disgruntled adepts of that art sometimes complain. I beg to differ,…
The death of a dream
Before plunging into a vexed question, it’s sometimes wise to point out that one is aware how vexed it is.…
Real life
Since telling the shoot we won’t let them use the land we rent, we have been beset by a series…
A rosé future
Some time ago, I wrote that rosé should only be drunk south of Lyon, but one could start on the…
High life
I write this as a follow-up to last week’s essay on muzzling after making whoopee. I’m on my way to…
The bigger picture
There are two certainties whenever England’s football team plays; one that is long-established and the other a recent phenomenon. Players…
A scandalous success
When Caroline Sheridan married George Chapple Norton in 1827 she ceased to exist. According to the legal status quo, as…
Punk pioneer
Manchester, in the words of the artist Linder Sterling, is a ‘tiny little world’. Nearly three million people live in…
Life and death decisions
Leave or remain? That’s the question hanging like a cartoon sledgehammer over Lionel Shriver’s 17th novel. Although she makes merry…
President Xi’s panopticon
Tom Miller describes how Xinjiang became a laboratory for China’s mass surveillance system – built with the help of US tech companies
Let there be light
The late Derek Ratcliffe, arguably Britain’s greatest naturalist since Charles Darwin, once explained how he cultivated a technique for finding…
A salt and sugar tax doesn’t make much sense
What is the point of the National Food Strategy? When Henry Dimbleby was hired as Britain’s ‘food tsar’ several years…
The constant Democratic existential crises
The Democratic party boasts so many heroes, it’s sometimes hard to keep up. Recently, Rep. Andy Kim revealed that he…
