When greed became good
We financial hacks have been encouraged, indoctrinated perhaps, to think that London’s Big Bang was a Very Good Thing. That…
Blithe spirit
Lady Anne Barnard is a name that means almost nothing today, but her story is a remarkable one. She defied…
Deadlier than the male
Teenage girls all over the world have suddenly developed electro-magnetic powers that can be unleashed on anybody who bugs them.…
Intimations of immortality
A preoccupation with death is felt from the start of Margaret Drabble’s new novel, which opens with Francesca Stubbs, in…
Bewitching stuff
Richard Francis’s new novel covers ostensibly familiar ground. Set in and around Boston in the 1690s, it tells the story…
When the music changes
In 2011 the New York Times’s chief dance critic, Alastair Macaulay, asked: How should we react today to ‘Bojangles of…
Brown study
The FBI certainly stirred up the US election when it announced it had found more of Hillary Clinton’s emails on…
The Battle for Britain
The post The Battle for Britain appeared first on The Spectator. Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment…
Ode worthy
In Competition No. 2972 you were invited to supply an ode on a Grayson Perry urn. Frank McDonald wasn’t keen:…
to 2282: Timely
The perimetric quotation (referring to October), AMBIGUOUS MONTH, THE MONTH OF TENSION, THE UNENDURABLE MONTH’, is followed by DL, the initials…
Dear Mary
Q. Some elderly friends of mine love to entertain in their London club on their visits, but a problem arises…
High life
Sixty years ago this week all hell broke loose: Soviet tanks rumbled into Budapest and put down a nationalist uprising…
Long life
For almost 400 years, since it was built on the orders of Pope Urban VIII in the 17th century, the…
Star-spangled banter
This weekend at the Edenbridge bonfire in Kent, near where I live, an effigy of Donald Trump will be burned.…
A tale of two battles
For the past few weeks, British news-papers have been informing their readers about two contrasting battles in the killing grounds…
Bordering on insanity
There are lots of signs at Gatwick about how it is unacceptable to be ‘rude or abusive’ to Border Force…
Vicar, can you spare a dime?
‘I am a Messianic Jew,’ says the jittery young man at the rectory door. He is pale and drawn, with…
Take a letter
Enrolling at Parsons College in New York the other day, a friend was asked to state her name, subject and…
Home to roost
‘Prefabs to solve housing crisis,’ screamed the front page of the Sunday Telegraph last weekend. Can the shortage of homes…
Breaking the Bank
The exchange of letters this week between Mark Carney and Philip Hammond made it very clear who the supplicant was.…
Low life
‘Look at them, they’re all fat,’ he said. I’d slowed the car to allow four children to cross the zebra…
Post-Brexit
Staring at a brown envelope, my husband said: ‘I’ll deal with that post-breakfast,’ and then laughed as though he had…
How to carry less baggage
One fairly reliable rule of thumb is ‘never buy anything at an airport if you can help it’. Something about…
Hippocrates’ prescription
Doctors are being urged not to tell patients what is best for them but to lay out the options and…
