The willow and the vine
A high proportion of wine-lovers also enjoy cricket, and vice versa. This might seem natural. Anyone with an aesthetic temperament…
Putting words on the map
I stopped using London buses when some coward put doors on them. Twenty years ago, you could board any bus…
Wild life
Kenya I perused the brochure produced by Tanzania’s state corporation for livestock ranching, aimed at attracting foreign investors. Under ‘beef…
Diary
I am an atheist, not one of those leftie agro ones. I respect people who have faith; I just don’t…
Title Stories: Doctor Faustus By Christopher Marlowe
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I’ve got a new passion – and I’m in far too deep
I have fallen in love with an unsuitable male. My wife isn’t totally happy about this relationship because she recognises…
Why are kids making posters for their GCSEs?
My niece, Lara, 15, has a mind like a surgical blade. On any subject, from calculus to The X Factor,…
Australian notes
Among Gough Whitlam’s greatest moments were his acceptance both of his Dismissal in November 1975 and of his overwhelming rejection…
Portrait of the week
Home Checks began at British airports for passengers who might have come from west Africa with Ebola fever (even though…
From the archives
From ‘War and wild life’, The Spectator, 17 October 1914: The siege of Antwerp has been a minor tragedy in…
Letters
Nothing to fear Sir: So long as we are not breaking any law, we have nothing to fear from the…
If Labour wins the general election, Ukip’s rise will be unstoppable
We have entered an age of four-party politics
We should worry about Ebola in Africa, not here
The risk of the average Brit contracting Ebola is substantially less than being hit by lightning
Ukip has turned itself into a confidence trick
You can’t be both more Tory than the Tories and more Labour than Labour. But apparently you can tell people you are and it’ll work
Stormy October: Germany stumbles, shares fall and bankers take another bashing
Plus: Spiritual detox for bankers, and the last business that can make the prefix ‘Euro’ sound good
Get rid of the GMC
It used to be little more than a clerk and a disciplinary committee; now it's a nest of power-hungry bureaucrats
Monsieur Clermont
That August, in La France Profonde, the frelons were out in force, honey-gold cruisers of late summer air, their poigniards…
Bear market
Sanctions over Ukraine hurt Germany and France far more than anyone else – Moscow included
Sex, death and good TV
First Oscar Pistorius, then Shrien Dewani: at dinner parties, talk has been of little else for months
Online comments help me understand the Nazis
I was rude about Ukip voters. I can take rudeness in return. But it’s a dark, bilious and resentful world down there…