Australian notes
When I was offered a full-time job here in 1994, my understanding of this country was limited to say the…
Bridge
There are plenty of bridge professionals who believe in flattering lesser players (whether they’re clients, friends or spouses) by exaggerating…
Heart and soul
‘He [Tony Abbott] knows exactly what he’s doing. I’m not going to go into what private conversations I have with…
Heart and soul
‘He [Tony Abbott] knows exactly what he’s doing. I’m not going to go into what private conversations I have with…
Father, son and holy ghost
No disrespect to any of the present incumbents, but Karl Miller (1931–2014) was a literary editor in an age when…
Light in the East
Christopher de Bellaigue, a journalist who has spent much of his working life in the Middle East, has grown tired…
Nothing matters very much
Nothing will come of nothing, said Lear, because he wasn’t familiar with quantum physics. According to our current best theories,…
Descent into hell
In my work as a reviewer, a small, steady proportion of all the books publishers send me concern the Holocaust.…
Carve their names with pride
‘Women,’ Captain Selwyn Jepson, SOE’s senior recruiting officer, once wrote, ‘have a far greater capacity for cool and lonely courage…
Back with a vengeance
One hour in No. 5 Cheyne Row, Virginia Woolf observed, will tell you more about the Carlyles than all the…
Night of the living dead
On 5 February 1862, the night Abraham Lincoln and his wife gave a lavish reception in the White House, with…
Comfort the suffering
If a single book could help you to be kinder and more compassionate, could expand and deepen your understanding of…
New European giants? Standard-Aberdeen looks a better bet than Peugeot-Vauxhall
Budget week also turned out to be a week of notable deals. PSA, French owner of Peugeot and Citroën, went…
‘Cash for ash’ is one green scam among many
Toffs are like jackals: always quick to sniff out new carrion. I remember a few years back one florid aristo…
What will you do in the gene-editing revolution?
The only time I ever saw a wolf in the wild, a small one, I was so frightened that I…
A Budget to keep Brexit off the rocks
Chancellors often enjoy a Budget for the chance it gives them to show off. They enjoy wrong-footing their opponents with…
The Spectator’s Notes
After he left the Blues and Royals in 1981, the young Tristan Voorspuy drove a motorbike from London to Cape…
The plot against the Pope
On the first Saturday in February, the people of Rome awoke to find the city covered in peculiar posters depicting…
Calendar clash
On a Friday evening in May 2018 I am going to see the Broadway show Hamilton. We had to book…
How to make drugs boring
Bill Blair, the former police chief of Toronto, slides into his restaurant chair and twinkles at the waitress. He’s 6ft…
Dumbing down the house
Osterley Park on the western fringes of London is a rare survival. A Robert Adam house, with splendid Adam interiors,…
Sydney Notebook
The other day, I went to a boozy barbecue near Sydney’s northern beaches. The guests were all political mates of…
On the money
Fans of tough investigative journalism should probably avoid Channel 4’s How’d You Get So Rich? Presenter Katherine Ryan’s main tactic…
Business/Robbery etc
It’s a no-brainer. Both economically and politically, only time will tell whether cutting penalty rates will create enough new jobs…
Hot air
Climate change has taken place for thousands of millions of years. The extraordinary claim that humans cause climate change must…
