Long life
The Egyptian driver of a London minicab said almost nothing during our journey but dropped me off at my destination…
Low life
For me, last year started with an appalling whitey outside a pub after swallowing a second ecstasy tablet because I…
Low life
For me, last year started with an appalling whitey outside a pub after swallowing a second ecstasy tablet because I…
Quotations
I couldn’t help laughing when I found that an Australian senator, Cory Bernardi, had deleted all his tweets from Twitter,…
Real life
‘Sadly, the world is filled with apathy,’ said my friend, as we looked at our sad little list of conscripts…
The plot to save our allotments
Since turning 50 I have become a gardening enthusiast. It started with tomatoes, then spread to raspberries and last year…
The plot to save our allotments
Since turning 50 I have become a gardening enthusiast. It started with tomatoes, then spread to raspberries and last year…
Things we don’t mind paying for
Here’s a challenge for film buffs: can anyone remember, from the entire canon of cinema and television, a single scene…
Plato and think-tanks
In Living with Difference, a think-tank report on the problems raised by a multi-faith UK, the chair Baroness Butler-Sloss says…
Barometer
In with the new How the new year is being celebrated around the world. From 1 January…BRITAIN: Annual Investment Allowance…
Diary
Disappointingly, the recent film about Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, does not include the thing about him which most struck…
Next year’s war
From ‘The Military Situation’, The Spectator, 1 January 1916: The opening of a new year is a time for taking stock…
Portrait of the week
Home Thousands of houses were flooded in York, Leeds, Manchester and other parts of Lancashire and Yorkshire, after weeks of…
Best in show
Until a decade and a half ago, we had no national museum of modern art at all. Indeed, the stuff…
Bad manners
The Danish Girl is based on the true (if heavily revised and simplified) story of Lili Elbe, one of the…
Murder, he wrote
The allure of Carlo Gesualdo, eighth Count of Conza and third Prince of Venosa, has been felt by music-lovers from…
Murder, he wrote
The allure of Carlo Gesualdo, eighth Count of Conza and third Prince of Venosa, has been felt by music-lovers from…
Passion play
Illness forced Kim Cattrall to withdraw from Linda, the Royal Court’s new show, and Noma Dumezweni scooped up the debris…
Passion play
Illness forced Kim Cattrall to withdraw from Linda, the Royal Court’s new show, and Noma Dumezweni scooped up the debris…
Aural wonderland
My resolution this New Year is to get to grips with podcasts, to brace up and embrace this new aural…
Aural wonderland
My resolution this New Year is to get to grips with podcasts, to brace up and embrace this new aural…
Australian diary
The Paris climate conference venue is a sight to behold. Over 40,000 people crowd into the temporary venue created using…
Misprint
Stealth is its policy. It lies in wait. It is no respecter of age. It turns up late Or far…
Bridge
This might be the most beautiful hand I’ve ever seen. I came across it while reading one of the old…
Sweet 2016
There is much to look forward to, and indeed much to be grateful for, as we embark upon the adventure…
