Long life
For almost 400 years, since it was built on the orders of Pope Urban VIII in the 17th century, the…
Long life
For almost 400 years, since it was built on the orders of Pope Urban VIII in the 17th century, the…
Low life
‘Look at them, they’re all fat,’ he said. I’d slowed the car to allow four children to cross the zebra…
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…
Looking after Leo
I’ve just spent a day looking after our one-year-old vizsla and, to be blunt, I have some sympathy with Michael…
Looking after Leo
I’ve just spent a day looking after our one-year-old vizsla and, to be blunt, I have some sympathy with Michael…
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…
Barometer
Strike force Nissan is to expand its plant in Sunderland, building two new models there. The Japanese company is praised for…
Diary
Polite, well-heeled New Hampshire is the last place you’d expect to see a voodoo doll. But there it was, pointed…
Love and death
From ‘Romance’, The Spectator, 4 November 1916: There is indeed a glamour and a pathos about the private soldier, especially when, as so…
Letters
An MP’s first duty Sir: Toby Young writes (Status anxiety, 29 October) that Zac Goldsmith’s decision to campaign for Leave in…
Portrait of the Week
Home Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England, said he would stay on for another year when his…
Napoleon dynamite
I shall never forget my first encounter with Abel Gance’s Napoleon. I saw it under the most unpromising circumstances —…
Those who designed our Senate would be appalled
If the Senate votes down the same sex marriage plebiscite bill it will amount to one of the most undemocratic…
Heaven knows they’re miserable now
The Light Between Oceans is one of those films that comes issued with a handy how-to-use manual. Shudder as hero…
Mistaken identity
The Romanovs were a hot topic in 1967: it was the 50th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, memories of Ingrid…
Enigma variations
On 2 August 1933 one of the more improbable meetings of the 20th century took place when Albert Einstein had…
Just kidding
Amadeus by Peter Shaffer is haunted by its own antecedents. Viewers are apt to feel that a new production lacks…
Just kidding
Amadeus by Peter Shaffer is haunted by its own antecedents. Viewers are apt to feel that a new production lacks…
Buried treasure
Wexford is to opera-goers what casinos are to gamblers. The uncertainty, the hope, the exhilaration — they’re all a crucial…
Buried treasure
Wexford is to opera-goers what casinos are to gamblers. The uncertainty, the hope, the exhilaration — they’re all a crucial…
Music matters
There’s nothing new about Radio 3 tearing up the schedules, temporarily abandoning regular favourites such as Private Passions, The Early…
