Another fine mess
I wonder why ENO has invested in a new production of Berg’s Lulu, when the previous one, which we first…
Whodunnit
Barbed wire, concrete, razor blades, passports, Bakelite and the sewage system are all crucial to the way we live now…
Old stamping ground
If I tell you that on Monday there was an hour-long documentary about the history of stamp-collecting, then you probably…
Space oddity
One of David Bowie’s last works, Lazarus, is a musical based on Walter Tevis’s novel The Man Who Fell to…
The moral arc of the universe bends towards me
So I made £250 betting on Trump to win the presidency. It would have been more, except that every time…
My husband’s ‘gay affair’ with Gove
A few weeks ago I discovered that while he should have been focused on the fight of his life during…
Brown study
Of all the hare-brained ideas that governments come up with, the deal with the US to take refugees from Manus…
The economic consequences of Philip Hammond
What are now called ‘fiscal events’—the Budget and the Autumn Statement—have become the biggest dates in the Westminster calendar. The…
Secrets of the universe
A few years ago, in Berne, I visited the apartment where Einstein wrote his theory of special relativity, which changed…
Full steam ahead
To write, and indeed to read, a history of considerable range, both in terms of chronology and of subject matter,…
A fateful squiggle on the map
When turbaned warriors from Daesh (or Isis) advanced on Raqqa in Syria two years ago, they whooped wildly about having…
In life divided
The ten pallbearers at Thomas Hardy’s funeral in Westminster Abbey on 16 January 1928 included Kipling, Barrie, Housman, Gosse, Galsworthy,…
Christmas stocking fillers
The gift books come in all shapes and sizes this year: big, little, tiny, huge, long, short, fat and thin,…
Things fall apart
Ali Smith is that rare thing in Britain: a much-beloved experimental writer. Part of her attraction for readers is that…
A choice of first novels
Constellation by Adrien Bosc (Serpent’s Tail, £12.99) picks nimbly along the divide between fiction and non-fiction. It’s really a speculative…
Up where the air is clear
Robert Twigger’s father was born in a Himalayan hill resort and carried to school in a sedan chair. His son,…
The Spectator’s Notes
On a day when much fuss was being made about ‘false news’ on the net, it was amusing to study…
Chigorin revived
The early games of the World Championship in New York between Magnus Carlsen and Sergei Karjakin did little to contribute…
to 2284: Shocking!
In PYGMALION (21D), ELIZA (32) said NOT BLOODY LIKELY! (7A/9/12). Synonyms were NEGATIVE (24), RARE (35), ODDS-ON (20). GB SHAW…
Autumn riches
A few days ago, on the Dorset/Somerset marches, autumn was still in orderly retreat. Although a pear tree’s leaves had…
High life
New York The only thing worse than a sore loser, I suppose, is a sore winner, but thank God…
Real life
The Israeli chef and I have become firm friends since he moved out of my flat. He has his own…
Wild life
Aero Club of East Africa The world looked so clean and untroubled during the flight in Bob’s light aircraft…
Germany and the City
From ‘English versus German banking’, The Spectator, 18 November 1916: At the present moment a good many of us are in…
Rose Byrne at rehearsal
David Mamet has a birthday next week; he’ll be turning 69. Quite a grand old man of American letters. Playwright…
