Spontaneous recombustion: how vapers have re-invented pipe-smoking in electronic form
A fascinating newcomer on the British high street is the vape shop. These were perfectly described by my friend Paul…
What Ryszard Kapuscinski airbrushed out of his bestselling book
I once found myself on a lonely road in southern Ethiopia with the famous Polish author Ryszard Kapuscinski. We were…
Pericles vs Corbyn
Whatever else one can say about Jeremy Corbyn, one thing is clear: he is a leader who does not believe…
The clock towers bigger than Big Ben
Bigger Bens Big Ben will have a £29m refurbishment. Who has the biggest clock tower? Kremlin Clock: Installed on the…
Boris Johnson’s diary: Amid the China hype, remember Japan
Frankly I don’t know why the British media made such a big fat fuss last week when I accidentally flattened…
Revenge and Edith Cavell
From ‘Reprisals’, The Spectator, 23 October 1915: The Germans lately executed Miss Cavell, a good and brave English hospital nurse, on a…
Portrait of the week
Home Xi Jinping, the ruler of China, came, with his wife Peng Liyuan, a folk singer, for a state visit…
Self-pitying, despairing, often delusional: the real Marlon Brando
Listen to Me Marlon is a documentary portrait of Marlon Brando that has him burbling into your ear for 102…
Repetitive but compelling: Giacometti at the National Portrait Gallery reviewed
One day in 1938 Alberto Giacometti saw a marvellous sight on his bedroom ceiling. It was ‘a thread like a…
I doubt Goethe intended Werther’s sorrows to be as unremitting as this
There are some things the French do better than everyone else. Cheese, military defeats and extra-marital affairs are a given,…
I doubt Goethe intended Werther’s sorrows to be as unremitting as this
There are some things the French do better than everyone else. Cheese, military defeats and extra-marital affairs are a given,…
Shakespeare at his freest and most exuberant: The Wars of the Roses reviewed
The RSC’s The Wars of the Roses solves a peculiar literary problem. Shakespeare’s earliest history plays are entitled Henry VI…
Shakespeare at his freest and most exuberant: The Wars of the Roses reviewed
The RSC’s The Wars of the Roses solves a peculiar literary problem. Shakespeare’s earliest history plays are entitled Henry VI…
Australian Diary
My Sunday starts watching the Wallabies take on Wales. My boys and I are transfixed by the gutsy display of…
What’s it like to talk at length to a serial killer?
‘I’ve never met a human being who doesn’t appreciate being listened to, being taken seriously,’ said Asbjorn Rachlew, the Norwegian…
What’s it like to talk at length to a serial killer?
‘I’ve never met a human being who doesn’t appreciate being listened to, being taken seriously,’ said Asbjorn Rachlew, the Norwegian…
Bridge
It’s not surprising that so many bridge players feel such a sentimental attachment to The Young Chelsea. The club was…
Heathrow’s third runway could still be halted – here’s how
The Great British Runway final between Heathrow and Gatwick is beginning to look like a game of two halves. The…
The car insurance industry is a disgusting racket
The car insurance industry is a racket: I think we all suspected that. But unless you’ve had personal experience of…
Will Theresa lead the Out tribe?
Listen http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/thedeathoffeminism/media.mp3 Who is the most politically interesting member of David Cameron’s cabinet? There’s a good case to be made…
Charles Moore’s Notes: If we want to save the elephant, we must legalise the ivory trade
How good a deal for Britain is it that the president of China got a state visit and a nuclear…
The Last Kingdom is BBC2’s solemnly cheesy answer to Game of Thrones
The opening caption for The Last Kingdom (BBC2, Thursday) read ‘Kingdom of Northumbria, North of England, 866 AD’. In fact,…
Colm Tóibín on priests, loss and the half-said thing
‘No matter what I’m writing,’ says Colm Tóibín, ‘someone ends up getting abandoned. Or someone goes. No matter what I’m…
Simon Schama’s migration muddle
Sooner or later, in this trade, one runs out of television historians to antagonise. I am doggedly working my way…
