Portrait of the week
Home The British economy grew by 0.8 per cent in the first quarter of 2014, disappointing hotheads who’d expected 1 per cent. It…
Letters
Burchill’s flimsy faith Sir: It is funny that it now falls to the Julie Burchills of this world, the old…
The Spectator’s Notes
Plus: Fighting Auberon Waugh over Europe, and what Britain will lose without Christianity
We’ve proved that mice despise women. But are we sure that dogs love war?
We've proved that mice despise women. But are we sure that dogs love war?
Ukip isn’t a national party. It’s a Tory sickness
Understand that, and much that seems mysterious about it becomes clear
Why do racists like Ukip?
Racism is only rarely a secret card you put in your wallet. More often, you carry it without knowing it's there
Patience is exhausted with bankers and their bonuses: this debate won’t go away
Plus: The fate of AstraZeneca, and the curse of the Gherkin
The descent of man
It's not just that women are doing better. Men, on all sorts of measures, are beginning to fall behind
Mnemonic
Nothing I write will be as durable as the rhyme for remembering the genders of third declension nouns, stuck in…
Shopping for the apocalypse
The Goldman Sachs executive building for the end of civilisation, and other scenes from America's thriving doomsday business
This charming man
An interview the Rt Revd John Bickersteth, the oldest living former bishop of Bath and Wells
The very odd couple
A review of Georgie & Elsa: Jorge Luis Borges and his Wife: The Untold Story, by Norman Thomas di Giovanni. Sour grapes seem to drive this prurient look at an unhappy part of the great Argentine writer’s life
From pillar to crag
A review of Sicily: A Literary Guide for Travellers by Andrew and Suzanne Edwards. Is there anything that Sicily has not seen and does not know?
Hints of beauty
A review of John Ruskin: Artist and Observer, by Christopher Newall. This catalogue says Ruskin was ‘among the greatest of English painters and draftsman’; some of the comparisons it contains suggest otherwise
Who’s raiding the fridge?
There is a problem with describing what happens in Nagasaki: impossible to reveal much of the plot without flagging up…
Mildly indigestible
A review of The 21st Century Digested, by John Crace. If you think this is too much, try 131 of them in a row...
A shot in the dark
A review of The Trigger, by Tim Butcher. A triumphant and original account of the man who shot the Archduke
Anthem for lost youth
A review of Other People’s Countries: A Journey into Memory, by Patrick McGuinness. A dreamy excursion into the backstory of the writer’s family
Hamlet without the prince
A review of In Search of Gielgud: A Biographer’s Tale, by Jonathan Croall. Croall’s quarry is rival critic Sheridan Morley not the great thesp
