The prying game
One of the marks of a good Home Secretary is a healthy wariness of those in authority who come begging…
High life
The rich are under attack nowadays, never more so than in America, where The Donald continues to trump his critics,…
Long life
On Monday I went to the newsagent to buy the newspapers and picked up the first issue of a new…
Long life
On Monday I went to the newsagent to buy the newspapers and picked up the first issue of a new…
Low life
Before we left for Sunday lunch at the Les Deux Garçons restaurant, Aix-en-Provence, I checked the reviews on Tripadvisor. I’m…
Low life
Before we left for Sunday lunch at the Les Deux Garçons restaurant, Aix-en-Provence, I checked the reviews on Tripadvisor. I’m…
Leap in the dark
‘They all laughed at Christopher Columbus,’ sang my husband flatly, ‘when he said the world was round.’ I wasn’t going…
Real life
Darcy trod on a screw. Five little words which, if Darcy was anything other than a thoroughbred horse, might signify…
Two big hitters leave the crease
Two great men have just bowed out from their chosen trades and it is bloody sad. The New Zealand cricket…
What would my socialist dad think of me now?
On Tuesday night I went to a birthday party for my father at the House of Commons. Hosted by the…
What would my socialist dad think of me now?
On Tuesday night I went to a birthday party for my father at the House of Commons. Hosted by the…
Nice guys do finish first
Richard Johnson, possibly the nicest man to occupy a saddle and certainly the most modest, once said of his Irish…
Nice guys do finish first
Richard Johnson, possibly the nicest man to occupy a saddle and certainly the most modest, once said of his Irish…
People power then and now
It does seem extraordinary that the increasingly puce-faced Mr Cameron offered us an ‘in-out’ referendum and is now telling us…
Barometer
You can’t do that there ’ere Some of the things which have been banned under Public Spaces Protection Orders, according to…
Diary
Just as the presidential race in America started to get really crazy, I left for India. On the morning of…
The last of Henry James
From ‘Henry James’, The Spectator, 4 March 1916: Englishmen are not likely ever to forget the generous thought which inspired…
Letters
What might have been Sir: Harry Mount points out that Boris Johnson is two years older than David Cameron (Diary,…
Portrait of the week
Home An official analysis by the Cabinet Office said that if Britain left the EU it would lead to a…
Ticket to ride
The latest film from the Coen brothers is a comedy set during the ‘golden age’ of Hollywood and in some…
Sex on legs
That joke about the young bull who tells the old bull, ‘Hey, Dad, see all those cows — let’s run…
Topsy-turvy
When Tom Birkin, hero of J.L. Carr’s novel A Month in the Country, wakes from sleeping in the sun, it…
Tragedy trumped by porn
Big fuss about Cleansed at the Dorfman. Talk of nauseous punters rushing for the gangways may have perversely delighted the…
Tragedy trumped by porn
Big fuss about Cleansed at the Dorfman. Talk of nauseous punters rushing for the gangways may have perversely delighted the…
Excess baggage
Near the end of Elena Langer’s new opera Figaro Gets a Divorce, as the Almaviva household — now emigrés in…
