The Australian Ballet Faster
I imagine that quite a few subscribers to the Australian Ballet would be happiest if they were only offered full…
Australian notes
Tim wilson is wrong In this past Saturday’s Inquirer page, Liberal MP Tim Wilson – former Commissioner in the Australian…
Jewish notes
Bob Hawke’s conditional friendship In Bob Hawke’s recent article (Australian Financial Review, 13 February) he claims that it is a…
Immigration notes
February 8 was Enoch Powell’s death day, God rest him. I observed it by reading his Collected Poems, a stately…
Welcome, Bibi
Sensible and fair-minded Australians, whether supporters of the Coalition, Labor, One Nation, or Cory Bernardi’s new party (obviously supporters of…
The plight of women in Labour
We’re told not to judge books by their covers, but faced with these two it’s hard not to. Harman’s is…
The Ben and Clara affair
As a child in fascist Italy, Clara Petacci (known as Claretta) was dutifully adoring of Benito Mussolini and the cult…
Telling stories
John Burnside is the author of an impressive bookshelf of elegant novels and slim, precise volumes of poetry, and like…
In the thieves’ den
‘To get a confession from a proud male factor, it is always better to call for a poet than a…
Conning the connoisseurs
Rogues’ Gallery describes itself as a history of art and its dealers, and Philip Hook, who has worked at the…
Dead poet’s society
Alex Salmond, former first minister of Scotland, once claimed that he could always tell Scottish fiction from English. Novels, he…
More matter with less art
When A.A. Gill died last December, there was wailing and gnashing of teeth across the nation. I must admit this…
A surreal caprice
At the start of this novella the protagonist, Thibaut, is ambushed by Wehrmacht soldiers between the ninth and tenth arrondissements.…
Let me take you through the night
As a child, I used to travel with my mother from London to Cannes, a journey that took slightly under…
All human life is there
This book kept reminding me of Robin Williams in One Hour Photo. Just as his character spied on customers’ private…
Light in the East
Christopher de Bellaigue, a journalist who has spent much of his working life in the Middle East, has grown tired…
Frontier territory
In Ali’s Café, just inside Turkey on the Bulgarian border, Iraqi and Syrian refugees spend their days drinking tea. Now…
Why I’m glad that Unilever saw off predatory robot Kraft Heinz
I was sorry Kraft Heinz’s £115 billion bid for Unilever collapsed so fast — unveiled on Friday, it was dead…
Killing spree of the fluffy green idiots
Who do you think was responsible for Europe’s biggest environmental disaster of the past three decades; one that caused more…
Bridge
If there’s one tournament I’d really like to play in, it’s the Cavendish in Monaco, the largest money bridge tournament…
Are satanic abuse cops 120 per cent gullible?
I got lost in the forest near my house while walking the dog the other week. The path I was…
The Spectator’s Notes
Last month, at Policy Exchange, I met a charming, quiet American general called H.R. McMaster. In conversation, I was struck…
A bookseller’s duty
To my mind, a bookshop is like a library — the only difference is that you buy the books, you…
L’anti-Trump
If you believe the hype, Emmanuel Macron is l’anti-Trump. He is what the inter-national centre-left, reeling from the shocks of…
Islam’s lost Enlightenment
I am quite used to people smirking into their sleeves when they hear that I’ve just written a book called…
