The day Peter Mandelson tried to get me sacked
Assuming it was full of junk, I tried to pull the trunk out of the way but I couldn’t move…
Should I be a Jew, Muslim or Hindu?
Time is running out. We all have to meet our maker at some point, and although I’m fit as a…
Who would Inspector Rebus support in the Scottish Premiership?
BBC Radio 4’s Today programme asks me to champion a favourite book and I choose Muriel Spark’s The Prime of…
What would Kenneth Williams make of our age?
Sunday marks what would have been the 100th birthday of Kenneth Williams. It’s tempting to try to imagine what he…
Revealed: David Lammy’s curious relationship with Guyanese Big Oil
Better not tell Ed Miliband, but in spring 2022 his then shadow cabinet colleague, David Lammy, appears to have struck…
Europeans love offal – why don’t we?
The British used to love offal but now we tend to be a bit wimpy about it, unlike the French…
The gangs terrifying the countryside
Sergeant Rob Goacher was on patrol recently when the radio crackled with a tip-off. Two men were hare coursing –…
Letters: Nicky Haslam should fix the Palace of Westminster
Growing pains Sir: It was reassuring to learn that Wes Streeting is a reader of The Spectator and also shares…
Is it last orders for BrewDog?
‘Nostalgia is not a strategy,’ declared Schroders chief executive Richard Oldfield after announcing that the investment firm, descended from a…
How much do graduates owe in student loans?
Toxic legacy Analysis by scientists at Porton Down suggested that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny had been killed using epibatidine,…
Dazzling: I’m Sorry, Prime Minister at the Apollo Theatre reviewed
Jim Hacker is back in the West End. I’m Sorry, Prime Minister, written by Jonathan Lynn (who co-wrote the original…
The problem with books podcasts
The Rest Is History has a new spin-off podcast called The Book Club. If you listen to the former, you’ll…
A highlight in an otherwise dull season: Pierrot Lunaire reviewed
Even if Schoenberg’s song cycle Pierrot Lunaire is never going to feature on anyone’s Desert Island Discs, it stands as…
Foot-to-the-floor entertainment: How to Get to Heaven from Belfast, Lisa McGee’s sequel to Derry Girls, reviewed
How do you follow a great sitcom? Judging from How to Get to Heaven from Belfast and Small Prophets, the…
How Greece carried the arts to rustic Rome
‘Cultural cringe’, that lovely Aussie coinage, perfectly describes the Roman attitude towards Greece. The curators don’t say so, but it…
John Mulhaney at his best is unstoppable
John Mulaney appeared to be just another of those identical, slick, clean-cut, young comedians in suits until Covid. But all…
Doesn’t put a foot wrong: The Secret Agent reviewed
Kleber Mendonca Filho’s The Secret Agent, which is about an academic on the run during Brazil’s brutal military dictatorship, won…
