When did advertising become so banal?
Walking down the street on my lunch break, I sometimes pass a delivery man wheeling a large handcart of Japanese…
How Orbán duped the Brexiteers
To the inhabitants of the British Isles, the nations of central Europe have always existed in a semi–mythical space, near…
Corbyn dares to be different – why don’t other MPs?
One of the better plays at the National Theatre in recent weeks has been about a 21st-century banker, Judy, who…
Welcome to the hard centre – and the future of British politics
The Conservative party has to move beyond Brexit and leaders: what is it going to be about? I suggest it…
James Cleverly: the Tories are to blame for Corbyn
As Labour gathers for its conference in Liverpool this weekend, the Conservatives will be watching with trepidation, rather than the…
Hilary Mantel’s Cromwell was just fiction. Here are the facts
One of the many pleasures of writing the life of Thomas Cromwell was to reach out behind the various versions…
Second best: Why runners up are more interesting than those who come first
Who was the second prime minister? Everyone knows Robert Walpole was the first. Firsts get all the fame and glory.…
Helen Parr’s intimate portrait of the Parachute Regiment – Our Boys – captures the essence of modern Britain
On the night of 13 June 1982, Dave Parr was hit by shellfire on Wireless Ridge. He was 19, a…
The history of Britain’s secret war on Napoleon is astonishing, inspiring and disturbing
Laws and sausages, we know, are better not seen in the making; and neither are ‘black ops’. Waterloo may have…
Good first novels without ends leave one wanting more
Novels today do not want to be done. Thank Anthony Burgess and John Fowles for this, most immediately, but alternate…
Two legal big hitters consider the appropriate distribution of governmental power in Britain
Sir Stephen Sedley read English at Cambridge and Lord Dyson Classics at Oxford. Both switched to law and achieved high…
Julie Burchill is bored by Robin Green’s account of her time at Rolling Stone – and says hippies still stink
The last time I saw a copy of the New Musical Express — the ferociously influential 1970s pop paper which…
Two new books explore the triumphs and tribulations of an underrated king – Henry II
Poor old Henry II: once fêted as one of England’s greatest kings, he has long been neglected. Accessible books on…
Humans are animals, and our extinction is inevitable – but we’re still pretty amazing
Ever since enlivenment of the primordial blob, before thoughts were first verbalised, all nature has always been motivated by a…
Pat Barker travels to Troy, but finds herself diverted somewhere outside Ypres
![‘Achilles has a dispute with Agamemnon [following Briseis being taken away, and Achilles refusing to fight until she is returned]’, J.H. Tischbein, 1776, oil on canvas. (Bridgeman Images)](https://www.spectator.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/achillies.jpg?w=410&h=275&crop=1)
Sing muse, begins The Iliad, of the wrath of Achilles. We are dropped straight into the tenth year of the…
Kate Atkinson’s new novel Transcription asks us how carefully we are paying attention
Transcription, Kate Atkinson’s 11th novel, sees her returning to the detective fiction she honed in her series about Jackson Brodie,…
My grandmother’s perfect pub – a memoir by Laura Thompson
As an emigrant from Scotland, I was taken aback by the weird foreignness of the south of England. Some of…
Paul Ewen’s Francis Plug is the saviour of comic fiction
Such was the perceived low standard of the 62 books recently submitted for the 2018 Wodehouse Prize for comic fiction,…
A brief history of unicorns
After the England football team beat Tunisia at this summer’s World Cup, they celebrated with a swimming-pool race on inflatable…
The night I kissed Harold Pinter
I think everyone was a little nervous of Harold. Including Harold, sometimes. He was affable, warm, generous, impulsive — and…
Rattle’s recapitulation: LSO/Simon Rattle at Barbican reviewed
A pregnant silence, a peaty belch from the tuba, and the scrape of brass on brass as gears lock into…
Blacktivist rhetoric and impenetrable symbols: Misty reviewed
Arinzé Kene’s play Misty is a collection of rap numbers and skits about a fare dodger, Lucas, from Hackney. Lucas…
The Spanish artist who is more gruesome even than Caravaggio
Last year my wife and I were wandering around the backstreets of Salamanca when we were confronted by a minor…
As a writer, Richard Wagner was both sublime – and unreadable
No one any longer denies the immense significance of Wagner’s musical-dramatic achievement, even if they find it repellent. But his…
Authenticity over artistry: Brushes with War reviewed
The first world war paintings of Paul Nash are so vivid and emotive that they have come to embody, as…
