Character assassination
Here are three truths about play-writing. A script without an interval will be structurally flawed. A vague, whimsical title means…
Character assassination
Here are three truths about play-writing. A script without an interval will be structurally flawed. A vague, whimsical title means…
Battle fatigue
Can anyone explain this sudden enthusiasm for Agincourt, that unexpected victory over the French, now being celebrated, or rather commemorated,…
Battle fatigue
Can anyone explain this sudden enthusiasm for Agincourt, that unexpected victory over the French, now being celebrated, or rather commemorated,…
In Other Eyes
Someone to trust with parcels, because he’s ‘always in’; the character who locks the gate at night and lingers to…
Consider this…
Self-indulgent race discrimination commissioner African American is not an accurate descriptor of Americans of Negro racial origin. North Africans, for…
Consider this…
Self-indulgent race discrimination commissioner African American is not an accurate descriptor of Americans of Negro racial origin. North Africans, for…
Bridge
If you like extremely high-level Pairs tournaments you would love Pierre Zimmermann’s Cavendish Monaco. Sixty pairs are auctioned off and…
Fine moments
What a shame that Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull never found a way to work effectively together. Or to look…
TalkTalk shows us the internet is only three clicks from anarchy
I’m not a customer of TalkTalk, the phone company which revealed last week that a hacker had potentially compromised the…
Are we all potential cyberterrorists now?
Hollywood got there first, of course. Back in 1983, before most of us even learned — then forgot again —…
Without a word of advice, Paul Methuen set me free
At the time he will barely have noticed me. In his mid-forties and (to me at 18) middle-aged, he was…
Lords of misrule
A few days after the general election, I bumped into one of David Cameron’s longest-standing political allies, one of those…
The Spectator’s notes
An enjoyable aspect of parliamentary rules and conventions is that almost no one understands them. This has become acutely true…
DVF worship
Girl is back for half-term so I’ve been able to watch nothing but crap on TV this week. Some of…
Australian Notes
If you look up the website of the late Australian philosopher David Stove, you will find the following mysterious announcement:…
The hatred that Amis and Corbyn share
Everyone loves an underdog. It doesn’t matter how incompetent they might be — indeed, incompetence works in their favour. You…
Through the Looking Glass
Adam Sisman brings admirable clarity to le Carré’s murky world of espionage, but there remains a mystery about his lifelong fixation with his father
Of gods and men
Neil MacGregor’s last major exhibition at the British Museum is a fascinating portrait of a crucial period in Egyptian history that holds a mirror up to today
High life
Its buildings are beautiful and its residents beat the aggressive slobs that pass for New Yorkers
Lords of misrule
David Cameron is reluctant to create the hundreds of new Tory peers it would take overcome the Labour/Lib Dem majority in the House of Lords
The Australian example
For many years, Australia has been turning away boats filled with migrants. From a remove, this looks cold–hearted — a…
A hint of anarchy everywhere
John Gimlett’s travel memoir Elephant Complex celebrates the enigmatic island of palm-fringed beaches and suicide bombs
