Funny, absorbing and as noir as noir can be: Thomas Pynchon rides again
The elusive novelist’s latest starts off complicated and then rapidly gets more so with its knot of gangsters, thugs, wacky inventors, spies, cops, political operatives and their accomplices
When, why and how came the fall – the success and sorry decline of the British Army
An impressively detailed chronicle by an analyst well up to the task. Read it and weep
When two worlds collide: Well, This is Awkward, by Esther Walker reviewed
A high-powered childless fortysomething social media exec’s life is turned upside down by the arrival of her 11-year-old niece
The parents gaming special educational needs
As a foster carer and adopter, I’ve spent more mornings than I care to count coaxing my 13-year-old daughter into…
How many people admit to using their phones at the dinner table?
King’s speechless There will be no state opening of parliament this year and consequently no King’s speech. This is only…
The questions the government must answer over the China spying case
Exactly a year ago, this magazine warned that ministers were showing a dangerous naivety towards China. We revealed that the…
Ukraine must stand as a fortress of European freedom
It is 35 years since I was last in Warsaw and the city is unrecognisable. Back then it was grimy…
The AI crash is coming
Who knows what Rachel Reeves reads in bed. Perhaps she dips into her own debut book, The Women Who Made…
Spectator Competition: Right to reply
For Competition 3421 you were invited to submit a reply from Slough to offset Betjeman’s rude lines on the subject.…
What did the ancients consider a ‘just war’?
Since the UN does not provide a definition of the ‘just war’, it is interesting to see the ancient take…
Why Sheridan Westlake is the Tories’ best weapon
Who is responsible for Labour’s recent woes? For some Conservatives, the answer is obvious – Sheridan Westlake. He is that…
Here be dragons: the truth about Chinese espionage
On 3 July a Chinese man, Xu Zewei, was arrested in Milan to face extradition on nine charges relating to…
Britain’s glassmaking tradition is fracturing
We live in a strange era in which much of our day-to-day experience is constructed for us digitally on a…
The government is too concerned for the tender feelings of China
Poor old Hamas, losing all those dead Jews. The BBC reports that Hamas ‘could not locate the remaining hostages’ bodies’,…
The day ‘Hitler’ was captured in Tottenham
Given the way the world is right now, I am avoiding it in the main. For the sake of my…
Portrait of the week: Gaza ceasefire, unemployment increases and a Gen Z uprising
Home Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, praised President Donald Trump for the Gaza ceasefire agreement while in India accompanied…
French parents do it better
I arrived in Paris as an au pair in 2022. I was in my early twenties and armed only with…
The ECHR will never be reformed
It is more than nine years since I was suspended by the Labour party for – I think – a…
Legal immigration is an absolute nightmare
A personal note this week, as 15 October 2025 marked an occasion of sorts: when my husband’s and my Portuguese…
The pathology of politics
Researchers from Imperial College London this week released an analysis of the health of voters in the UK. In a…
Georgia Toffolo: In defence of my husband James Watt
Rough justice Sir: The Church Commissioners’ plan to establish a £100 million (rising to £1 billion) fund for ‘reparative justice’…
Labour’s class war on moorland
This year has been a bad one for wildfires in Britain. In June, nearly 30,000 acres burned near Carrbridge in…
Can anyone stop J.D. Vance becoming president?
As Donald J. Trump flew to the Holy Land on Sunday to declare peace, his Vice-President took to the airwaves…
