High life

11 August 2016 1:00 pm

Gstaad   ‘He flies through the air with the greatest of ease, that daring young man on the flying trapeze.’…

Long life

11 August 2016 1:00 pm

A hoo-ha has broken out in the city of Oryol, south-west of Moscow, over a proposal by the officials there…

Long life

11 August 2016 1:00 pm

A hoo-ha has broken out in the city of Oryol, south-west of Moscow, over a proposal by the officials there…

Low life

11 August 2016 1:00 pm

At 11 p.m. I sneaked away from my boy’s wedding party to my ground-floor accommodation in the hotel to write…

Low life

11 August 2016 1:00 pm

At 11 p.m. I sneaked away from my boy’s wedding party to my ground-floor accommodation in the hotel to write…

Honorificabilitudinity

11 August 2016 1:00 pm

My husband told me with glee that Nicholas Byfield had a great big stone ‘like flint’ in his bladder, weighing…

Real life

11 August 2016 1:00 pm

The builder boyfriend colicked for a week after eating a falafel kebab as he and I sat up all night…

The problem with grammar schools

11 August 2016 1:00 pm

By rights, I should be one of those Tories who is passionately in favour of grammar schools. After all, I…

The problem with grammar schools

11 August 2016 1:00 pm

By rights, I should be one of those Tories who is passionately in favour of grammar schools. After all, I…

When more data makes you more wrong

11 August 2016 1:00 pm

In a one-day international against Australia last year, Ben Stokes was dismissed for ‘obstructing the field’, a rule rarely invoked…

Rome’s border policy

11 August 2016 1:00 pm

Whether the EU commission knows what is good for it or not — always a tricky call — post-Brexit Britain…

Barometer

11 August 2016 1:00 pm

The end of an emperor — 82-year-old Emperor Akihito of Japan has announced that he wants to abdicate, partly, he…

Diary

11 August 2016 1:00 pm

Walking along the Brighton seafront, I was struck by posters advertising endless tribute acts; among them Suspiciously Elvis, the Small…

Holding on

11 August 2016 1:00 pm

From ‘Restless politicians’, The Spectator, 12 August 1916: Even those journals which a few months ago were most zealous for…

Letters

11 August 2016 1:00 pm

The hate is real Sir: It is clearly an exaggeration to call Britain a bigoted country (‘We are not a…

Australian letters

11 August 2016 1:00 pm

Costello for PM? Sir: John Stone’s prediction that Liberal MPs will soon revisit the cutlery draw and stab Turnbull in…

Portrait of the week

11 August 2016 1:00 pm

Home The government floated the idea that individuals might receive payments in areas where fracking was approved, or where housing…

Requiem for a designer dream

11 August 2016 1:00 pm

Threnody. Dirge. Lament. Epitaph. Elegy. Wake. There are so many English terms to describe the passing of people and things…

Oven-ready

11 August 2016 1:00 pm

Todd Solondz’s Wiener-Dog is billed as a ‘dark comedy’ although it is far more dark than comic. If pressed to…

Recycling the avant-garde

11 August 2016 1:00 pm

One overcast afternoon in late July I took a train to Norfolk. It seemed a good time and place to…

Tartan-ing up the arts

11 August 2016 1:00 pm

Many years ago an arts spokesperson for the SNP launched an extraordinary attack on Scottish Opera, saying, ‘If push comes…

Tartan-ing up the arts

11 August 2016 1:00 pm

Many years ago an arts spokesperson for the SNP launched an extraordinary attack on Scottish Opera, saying, ‘If push comes…

Northern exposure

11 August 2016 1:00 pm

As the festival grows, the good acts are harder to find and the prices keep rising to meet the throngs…

Northern exposure

11 August 2016 1:00 pm

As the festival grows, the good acts are harder to find and the prices keep rising to meet the throngs…

Dorset’s winning formula

11 August 2016 1:00 pm

Dorset Opera seems to receive far less coverage than the rest of the country-house summer shows, although it is in…