High life
New York The only thing worse than a sore loser, I suppose, is a sore winner, but thank God…
Long life
I started watching The Crown, the £100-million television series on the early years of the Queen’s reign, on Netflix but…
Long life
I started watching The Crown, the £100-million television series on the early years of the Queen’s reign, on Netflix but…
Low life
The day after the American people applied a very welcome touch on the brakes to the Enlightenment juggernaut, I went…
Low life
The day after the American people applied a very welcome touch on the brakes to the Enlightenment juggernaut, I went…
Cortana
At the Queen’s Coronation, the Duke of Northumberland carried the Sword of Mercy called Cortana. I mention this for three…
Real life
The Israeli chef and I have become firm friends since he moved out of my flat. He has his own…
A new path to the top of the teaching tree
A few months ago I joined forces with Sir Anthony Seldon, the vice-chancellor of Buckingham University, to run an idea…
A new path to the top of the teaching tree
A few months ago I joined forces with Sir Anthony Seldon, the vice-chancellor of Buckingham University, to run an idea…
How the left wastes its energy
There are only three infallible rules in advertising. Be distinctive. Make a lot of noise. And try to feature a…
Wild life
Aero Club of East Africa The world looked so clean and untroubled during the flight in Bob’s light aircraft…
Thucydides on Donald Trump
‘America’s journey into the great unknown’, screamed a headline greeting Donald Trump’s election as next President of the United States.…
Barometer
Long divisions Donald Trump reaffirmed his plan for a border wall between the US and Mexico, but said parts might…
Diary
Nobody knows anything. William Goldman’s famous first law of the movie business — that no one can say before the…
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…
Letters
Wisdom of crowds Sir: According to Matthew Parris (‘Can we trust the people?’ 12 November), I have become part of the…
Portrait of the week
Home Nigel Farage, the caretaker leader of Ukip, was photographed with a smiling Donald Trump as the two men held…
Stuck on stucco
Whenever the words ‘stucco house’ appear in the newspapers, you can be certain the occupiers have been up to no…
High Court lawbreakers
On 2 July this year, a handful of Australians from the West, numbering in the tens of thousands, dispatched a…
Where the wild things are
‘What is man, that thou art mindful of him?’ asks the Psalmist. It’s a good question. God Himself doesn’t give…
About a boy
Indignation is an adaptation of Philip Roth’s 2008 novel and amazingly, for an adaptation of a Philip Roth novel —…
Serious concerns
It’s funny, isn’t it, how a dust jacket on a book can draw you to it from the other end…
Space oddity
One of David Bowie’s last works, Lazarus, is a musical based on Walter Tevis’s novel The Man Who Fell to…
Space oddity
One of David Bowie’s last works, Lazarus, is a musical based on Walter Tevis’s novel The Man Who Fell to…
Another fine mess
I wonder why ENO has invested in a new production of Berg’s Lulu, when the previous one, which we first…
