Wild life
Laikipia plateau, Kenya My great-grandpa Ernest Wise was an engineer who sailed to South Africa towards the end of the…
Socrates on expertise
The governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, raises his growth forecasts and suddenly everyone believes the ‘expert’. So…
Barometer
Match of the knights Emails emerged suggesting David Beckham would rather appreciate a knighthood. How many goals do you have…
Diary
February Fill-Dyke. But north Norfolk is dry, at least in terms of rain. Instead we have coastal flooding. Three years…
A special relationship
From ‘The United States and Britain’, The Spectator, 10 February 1917: It would be easy to write down a hundred…
Australian letters
Bankstown lefty Sir: Paul Keating’s political legacy was pretty good, but I have to scoff at his ‘world’s greatest treasurer’…
Letters
No fear Sir: Why does Matthew Parris think I am ‘secretly terrified’ of having voted to leave the EU (‘Brexiteers…
Portrait of the Week
Home John Bercow, the Speaker of the House of Commons, said he was ‘strongly opposed’ to an address being made…
The Cory revolution
It’s hard to imagine that, less than five years ago, Cory Bernardi was Tony Abbott’s parliamentary secretary. The role suited…
Hanging on the telephone
January 29, 2017 might be remembered by Australians and Americans as the day when the President of the United States,…
Mr Trumble’s dumb deal
President Trump was right. It was a ‘dumb deal’, dumb for both Australia and the United States. First, it was…
The Jackal vote
I have argued before that New Zealand and Australia might combine their defence forces, providing New Zealand pulled its weight…
Some like it hot
In the mid-6th century, legend has it, St Brendan set off from Ireland with a currach-load of monks on a…
Mother superior
Unlike with buses, you wait ages and ages for one fabulous film as framed by the older female perspective to…
Sunny delight
No Californian could have painted Hockney’s pools. No La-La Land artist, raised on sun and orange juice, would have done…
Drake’s progress
Those poor Canadian rappers. Hailing from a country with a functioning benefits system, sensible firearms restrictions and relatively harmonious race…
Drake’s progress
Those poor Canadian rappers. Hailing from a country with a functioning benefits system, sensible firearms restrictions and relatively harmonious race…
Age concern
Brahms didn’t always have a beard. The picture in the London Symphony Orchestra’s programme book showed him clean-shaven, and rightly.…
Age concern
Brahms didn’t always have a beard. The picture in the London Symphony Orchestra’s programme book showed him clean-shaven, and rightly.…
Timeless and dated
Tennessee Williams’s breakthrough play is a portrait of his dysfunctional family. A young writer, Tom (Williams’s real name), lives with…
Timeless and dated
Tennessee Williams’s breakthrough play is a portrait of his dysfunctional family. A young writer, Tom (Williams’s real name), lives with…
Losing the plot
Fully to enjoy Opera North’s new production of Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel you need to take a trinocular perspective on…
Losing the plot
Fully to enjoy Opera North’s new production of Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel you need to take a trinocular perspective on…
Rules of engagement
The BBC foreign correspondent Hugh Sykes was meant to be talking about how music has shaped his life with Sarah…
Rules of engagement
The BBC foreign correspondent Hugh Sykes was meant to be talking about how music has shaped his life with Sarah…
