From the archives
From ‘Reprisals’, The Spectator, 30 January 1915: There has been a tendency among some newspapers, and perhaps still more among…
Benedict Cumberbatch and what’s really offensive
Why is 'coloured' worse than 'people of colour'? And what's the logic of 'black'?
Do I care about Liberia? Do you? Does Oxfam?
The sign of seriousness is seeing a crisis early – and following up after it's finished
The hottest year on which record?
Scientists seem to be adjusting the evidence. I’d still like to know why
Austerity really is a virtue, whatever the Greeks think
Plus: How Leon Brittan changed the world, and the scandal of late payments
The great European revolt
For the election campaign, and for the negotiations that might follow it, Syriza’s victory opens some promising vistas
Study
I’d tell you I came back here, that I’m writing in this room, if you had not found another and…
Dresden notebook
The views of the Stammtisch (the pub regulars) are a growing force in Germany, but they have yet to find someone to articulate them in the public sphere
The Charles problem
The Prince of Wales has shown himself too vain to accept the limits of constitutional monarchy
The silent victory
Despite all the spin from the left, the school reforms have made a huge, positive difference. It’s time someone in power said so
Flowering obsession
What makes snowdrop mania particularly strange is that, unlike gorgeous, colourful tulip flowers, the variations between snowdrops are almost too tiny to spot
Only capitalism can save Nigeria
Deeply divided and full of potential, this country could be headed for a boom – or a coup
Making history
In a recent interview, the celebrity historian and Tudor expert David Starkey described Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall as a ‘deliberate…
The making of a famous serious poet
Reviewing Robert Crawford’s Young Eliot, Daniel Swift suspects that the poet’s genius has been over-explained and over-simplified
It was beauty killed the beast
A review of Stranger than Fiction by Neil Clark explores the turbulent life of King Kong’s creator
Persuasions
Persuasions of shattered glass, fifty rounds bringing carnage, injury, terror, bereavement. What can preserve the State? Citizen A calls an…
A cavalcade of plump lovelies
A review of The King’s Bed by Don Jordan and Michael Walsh finds the king’s concubines disappointingly greedy and self-seeking
Raging towards utopia
A review of Patrick Cockburn’s The Rise of the Islamic State suggests that the rise of IS was plain for all to see, but we chose not to look
Plumbing the depths of horror
A review of If This is a Woman by Sarah Helm offers some shreds of hope in the heroic behaviour of many of the camp inmates
Building Jerusalem in Bow
A review of The Match Girl and the Heiress explores the unlikely collaboration of a factory worker and a middle-class Lady Bountiful to spread social justice in a London slum
Japanomania
Virtually every childhood craze of the past 30 years has its beginnings in Japan. Today its influence is stronger than ever
