Behind the fringe
‘Sexual intercourse began / In nineteen sixty-three,’ Philip Larkin famously announced in his poem ‘Annus Mirabilis’, ‘Between the end of…
Spewing hate
The recent ABC documentary Recognition – Yes or No? concluded with Andrew Bolt in a fold-out chair on a lawn…
The world in limbo
In 1919 the economist and sometime prophet John Maynard Keynes left the glittering ballroom of Versailles feeling profoundly despondent. The…
Provincial notes
Turnbull was right. Let the states tax us Go and teach a constitutional law course in my native Canada and…
Paintbrushes at the ready
When the old curmudgeon Edgar Degas died in 1917, a stunning trove of works by Edouard Manet — eight paintings,…
Long life
Monty Don, the television gardening presenter, always comes across on screen as irrepressibly cheerful and enthusiastic, but this is a…
He blew his mind out in a car
There was a touch of Raymond Radiguet, the young literary sensation of 1920s Paris, about Tara Browne. In life poetically…
Autumnal
In Competition No. 2969 you were invited to submit a poem about autumn in the style of the poet of…
Too good to be true
The McNulty family in the novels of Sebastian Barry have a definite claim to be one of the unluckiest in…
The master of Ballydoyle
The only downside about going racing is irritation born of encountering pig ignorant people who talk through their pockets. Beside…
His and her healthcare
When I started this book, I have to admit, I did not think it would be as absolutely fascinating as…
2282: Timely
Clockwise round the grid from 21 runs a timely quotation (9,5,3,5,2,7,3,11,5) (in ODQ) followed by the initials of its author,…
England’s unloved king
Aethelred the Unready (c.968—1016) has not, as Levi Roach acknowledges, enjoyed a good press. In recent times there may have…
The Battle for Britain
The post The Battle for Britain appeared first on The Spectator. Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment…
A parable of good and evil
It is difficult to write well about slavery. As with the Holocaust, the subject’s horrific nature lends itself too easily…
Polari
Of the contribution to English that Polari is claimed to have brought, perhaps naff is the most current-sounding. An older…
Courting the Iron Lady
This is a strange book. Peter Stothard, the editor of the TLS, is packing up his office. It is a…
At all three party conferences, I felt cut adrift
Perhaps it’s age, perhaps disillusion, or perhaps party conferences really aren’t what they used to be, but I have struggled…
A study in alienation
Looking for the Outsider is the biography of a novel, from conception through publication to critical reception. Alice Kaplan’s life-story…
Tory Theresa is Blue Labour at heart
I never really agreed with the central-thesis of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy — that ‘42’ is the answer…
Breach of Trust
Ever since it was founded in 1895, the National Trust has been considered a good thing. That oak tree sticker…
Muslim magic
In 1402, when the Turkic conqueror Temur, better known in the West as Tamerlane, was poised to do battle with…
Diary
To Edinburgh to get married, but first my toyboy groom John Playfair (he’s a mere 69) shows me the city…
Grave goods
There’s a folder in my computer’s external hard drive in which you’ll find 24 complete recordings of the Bach Cello…
Sorry, Shami, but you’re wasting your money
I’ve been thinking about poor Shami Chakrabarti and the drubbing she’s suffered since it was revealed she’s sending her son…
