Croatia
Advocates of New Zealand often boast that the country is like Britain was in the 1950s. This is all well…
Cocktails, castles and cadging
Here is a veritable feast for fans of Paddy Leigh Fermor. This is the story of a well-lived life through…
The art of listening
Rachel Cusk is a writer who provokes strong reactions in her readers, and her critical reputation has swung wildly in…
High life
Although my birthday was in August, I chose the rather melancholy autumnal moment of September to celebrate it — mourn…
Real life
‘If you ask me,’ said the builder boyfriend, watching me hobble down the street as we set off for an…
All work, many plays
‘Krapping away here to no little avail,’ writes Beckett to the actor Patrick Magee in September 1969. To ‘no little…
The turf
There are few more compulsive reads in racing than the Kingsley Klarion, the in-house journal of Mark Johnston’s Middleham racing…
Knight’s tale
In The Cousins’ War (1999), the Republican political strategist Kevin Phillips argued that three ‘civil wars’ had defined politics in…
Rigan wizard
Mikhail Tal, the Wizard from Riga, was one of the most devastating tacticians in the history of chess. His rise…
If
In Competition No. 2967 you were invited to submit an article written by the author of your choice under the…
Frankly impenetrable
One day in April 1969 Theodor Adorno began teaching a new course entitled ‘An Introduction to Dialectical Thinking’. Feel free,…
2277: Royalty
The theme word is KING and the pairs are 4/41, 14/1A, 19/27, 34/16 and 38/24. First prize C.V. Clark, London…
Recent crime fiction
There are two people in a prison cell: Frank and Hal. One of them is a member of a spy…
The Battle for Britain
The post The Battle for Britain appeared first on The Spectator. Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment…
Dear Mary
Q. When an invitation to shoot arrives in the autumn, I have a sense of both excitement and dread. The…
The fallen Angel
Ashraf Marwan was an Egyptian-born businessman, a son-in-law to Nasser and a political high-flyer in the administration of Sadat, who…
Ash
Home is where the heart is, but some poor languages have no word for ‘home’. For them, home is where…
Malcolm (never to be released)
Malcolm Turnbull should surrender his passport and never again be allowed to leave these shores, at least while he is…
Untold tales of Tibet
On the night of 17 March 1959, the 14th Dalai Lama, aged 23, slipped out of the Norbulinka, his summer…
Diary of a parliamentary nobody
Upon debut as a columnist some explanatory notes are surely in order. Like the American columnist George F. Will I…
Body and soul
Emma Donoghue’s novel Room was short-listed for the 2010 Man Booker prize and made into a film in 2015. Inspired…
All sizzle, no sausage
During a recent policy debate concerning the proposal to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in our Constitution, a…
The curse of Mr Kurtz
Marie Darrieussecq shot to literary fame in France when her bestselling debut, Pig Tales (1996), was a finalist for the…
The Empire fries back
Memo to self: If I ever decide to flirt with the shoals of bankruptcy and follow friends’ calls to ‘open…
Consider This
The WHO is a closed shop ‘I for my part am convinced that the day will come when international health…
