The horror of choosing a Halloween costume
Halloween used to be easy. It was a fancy-dress party: you could wear whatever you liked. The idea was to…
Can Hammond’s Budget make business feel better about Brexit?
‘Uncertainty is draining investment from the UK, with Brexit having a negative impact on eight in ten businesses,’ says Carolyn…
When Donald Trump goes low, the Democrats go lower
Washington, DC As if American politics were not scary enough, the prospect of President Hillary Rodham Clinton has once again…
The death of American civility
My father, an avowed liberal, taught me old-school manners: hold the door and give up your seat for ladies; stand…
Homage to Ambazonia: The battle over language has begun in Cameroon
Calabar, Nigeria Simon Ngwa is a gentle and polite man, and he apologised to me first for what he was…
Turkey vs Saudi: the real story behind Khashoggi’s murder
Istanbul In another time, in another place, we might never have known about the death of Jamal Khashoggi. In a…
Tony Abbott: How to save Brexit
It’s pretty hard for Britain’s friends, here in Australia, to make sense of the mess that’s being made of Brexit.…
Wildlife obsessives must learn when to back off
Richmond Park is an eerie place at this time of year. It’s not just that it’s the deer rutting season,…
In defence of circus animals
In a British circus, you will no longer find big cats, dancing bears or sea lions balancing on balls. Anne,…
The beauty – and eccentric parsons – of Cornwall’s wild north-east coast
The first time I encountered Morwenstowe on Cornwall’s wild north-west coast I was alone. It was early spring and the…
A little of Philip Larkin’s letters goes a long way
On 13 September 1964, at the age of 42, Philip Larkin began writing to his mother Eva (his ‘very dear…
It’s entirely possible to die of a broken heart
The numbers invite awe: three billion beats in a lifetime; 100,000 miles of vessels. But on the hospital floor, wonder…
Mark Kermode: I longed to be a pop star
![[Credit: Julie Edwards]](https://www.spectator.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Mark_Kermode.jpg?w=410&h=275&crop=1)
In the 1970s, when Mark Kermode first picked up an instrument, the UK record business was a very different place.…
Heredity is only half the story
![[Getty]](https://www.spectator.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/DNA_pic.jpg?w=410&h=275&crop=1)
The Romans invoked Fortuna, the goddess of luck, to explain the unexplainable; fortune-tellers study tea leaves to predict the unpredictable.…
Jane Haynes: the shrink who loves to break the rules
‘I have fallen in love many times in my consulting room,’ writes the psychotherapist Jane Haynes. ‘I do not mean…
Deeply mysterious: the latest thrillers reviewed
Maggie is sitting alone in the park when she’s approached by Harvey, who introduces himself as a recruiter for MI5.…
Why the British love the oak tree
![An English oak in a misty meadow at dawn [Getty]](https://www.spectator.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/oak_tree.jpg?w=410&h=275&crop=1)
Over the past couple of years, I’ve been planting up much of the pasture on our small Cornish farm with…
The road trip from hell: A Station on the Path to Somewhere Better, by Benjamin Wood, reviewed
A lingeringly strange atmosphere hangs about Benjamin Wood’s third novel, in which the settings and paraphernalia of a new wave…
‘Darmstadt taught me how to compose’: Ennio Morricone interviewed
Ennio Morricone’s staff wish it to be known that he does not write soundtracks. ‘Maestro Morricone writes “Film Music” NOT…
The objects that sound witchiest on paper just look sad: Spellbound reviewed
Just in front of me, visiting Spellbound at the Ashmolean last week, was a very rational boy of about seven…
In praise of the English Touring Opera — a minor miracle of the arts world
Wolverhampton; Workington; Blackburn; Sheffield; Lancaster; Hackney. Every year English Touring Opera does what our national opera company doesn’t: packs up…
What are the writers of The Archers trying to achieve with the Freddie Pargetter story?
‘I’m not here to rehabilitate,’ says Pamela, who teaches creative writing to prisoners in Northern Ireland. She doesn’t think of…
The Inheritance isn’t theatre — it’s mesmerically boring TV
Stories by Nina Raine is a bun-in-the-oven comedy with a complex back narrative. Anna, in her mid-thirties, had a boyfriend…
Why does the English National Ballet bother taking Manon to the provinces?
Like it or not, provincial ballet audiences love a story they can hum and any director planning to tour a…
How did mild-mannered eye doctor Bashar al-Assad end up a mass murderer?
‘How did this mild-mannered eye doctor end up killing hundreds of thousands of people?’ someone wondered about Bashar al-Assad in…
