Russia’s sacred tree
The image of the birch tree in popular Russian culture is as manifold as the trees themselves, but we could…
A small miracle
Along with coral reefs and their fish, tropical butterflies and birds of paradise, hummingbirds must be among the most beautiful…
The story of O
Wyl Menmuir’s first novel, The Many, was a surprise inclusion on the 2016 Booker Prize longlist. It drew praise for…
Playing cat and mouse
Almost any promising writer of spy fiction can expect at some point to be called the ‘next Le Carré’, an…
Crazy cricket
Cricket in Latin America sounds like an oxymoron. Yet in almost every country in the region willow was hitting leather…
A city under siege
Adam Sisman describes the toxic atmosphere in Berlin after the end of the second world war
More sinned against than sinning
Ethel Rosenberg was an exceptional woman. Born with a painful curvature of the spine to a poor family of Jewish…
Words were not enough
Before Billy Wilder became the celebrated director of films such as Sunset Boulevard, Some Like It Hot and The Apartment…
What a song and dance
In The Heights is an adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s smash-hit stage musical — the one he wrote before Hamilton —…
The people’s choice
Richard Bratby talks to one of Britain’s most successful impresarios about his promoter’s nose, Arts Council spinelessness and ENO madness
Divine comedy
Godot Is a Woman opens with three tramps standing on a bare stage beneath a solitary upright. This isn’t Samuel…
Ska struck
When Trojan Records attempted to break into the United States music market in the early 1970s, it hit an insurmountable…
Star trek
Now that all of the billionaires are going into space, the night sky holds a special new kind of allure.…
Drawing breath
Amid the greatly exaggerated reports of the death of painting issued and reissued over the course of the past century,…
The play’s the thing
Let me start with a spot of admin: if you’re wondering what The Speccie makes of GB News, it’ll be…
A battery of joy
Where do you want to go? China or India? I have always found India infinitely more fascinating — for a…
to 2508: Grovels
The unclued lights (including the pair at 24/28) are CHEESES. First prize Rhidian Llewellyn, London SW14 Runners-up H. Sarson, Guernsey,…
Portrait of the Week
Home The lifting of coronavirus restrictions was delayed from 21 June until 19 July, probably. The motive was to avoid…
Where’s the beef?
If Britain had been unable to agree a trade deal with Australia, then Brexit really would have been pointless. The…
The Spectator’s Notes
If it is true, as Lords Hall and Birt told a Commons committee this week, that Martin Bashir succeeded in…
We’re all in favour of lockdown, darling
I’ve just written an essay for the People’s Lockdown Inquiry, a new collaboration between Buckingham University, the Institute of Ideas…
