Africa
Why we should listen to elephants
Laikipia, Kenya ‘An elephant has fallen over,’ said the man running up to me. My first thought was that…
The British see Africa only in terms of aid but there are business opportunities aplenty
Kenya As the Union Flag was lowered during Kenya’s Uhuru ceremony in 1963, the Duke of Edinburgh turned to…
Demography has become the biggest story on the planet
One of my vanities is that all my novels are different. Yet one astute journalist identified a universal thread: ‘Too…
Me vs an eight-foot spitting cobra
Laikipia, Kenya ‘The End,’ I typed. The book that had taken me 14 years to write. I rose from…
How I rewilded the African bush
Laikipia My two Jersey bulls Halcyon and Hosanna were grazing happily on the lawn in front of the house…
I saw my future in the entrails of a butchered sheep
Laikipia, Kenya The Turkana cowhands are on Facebook and they spend a lot of time on their cell phones,…
China is winning the new scramble for Africa. Brexit could change that
On her tour of South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya, Theresa May finally made a positive case for Brexit. For too…
Portrait of the week: Theresa May goes to Africa, Labour accused of anti-Semitism (again) and John McCain dies
Home Theresa May, the Prime Minister, flew off to South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria accompanied by a trade delegation. In…
Britain should spend more on diplomacy in Africa and less on aid
It is a tragedy that the party that has ruined Zimbabwe, led by a man who was one of the…
A warning to those who argue that we live in a visual society
‘Can one person really grasp the significance of what another person has been through?’ asks Dr Rita Charon in this…
A cow is better than a bank balance
Laikipia, Kenya A minotaur head glowers at me through the bathroom window while I am brushing my teeth in…
Tripping in the African bush
Laikipia, Kenya Neighbours Tom and Jo came by with a bucketful of wild African mushrooms, which they had collected in…
Cold Comfort Farm comes to Kenya
Laikipia I woke with the breath of a leopard a few feet from me as I lay in my bed.…
Why I am hanging up my crystal ball
Gstaad I caught a whiff of it as it rolled in from the east, the smell of hypocrisy being different…
The wild and wintry wonders of Lapland
As Sini harnessed up the huskies they were all yelping with excitement, but once we set off and the forest…
Aidan Hartley: A plague of ravenous zebras
Laikipia, Kenya The zebra lacks a rumen and eats at least twice as much as a cow. On our…
The era when you could love a car is over
There are four of us in this relationship: my partner and I, his horse and my truck. His horse is…
Wild life
Laikipia Ripping up the black cotton soil on the farm’s high savannah I get a sense of what it must…
High life
I think this week marks my 40th anniversary as a Spectator columnist, but I’m not 100 per cent certain. All…
Exodus from Gambia
A ticket to paradise comes very cheap in Gambia — as long as you’re headed in the right direction. Thomas…
What do we gain by burning ivory?
Burning stockpiles of ivory was meant to wipe out poaching. After nearly 30 years, is it working?
What an extraordinary debut for Emma Rice: Globe's Midsummer Night's Dream reviewed
The Globe’s new chatelaine, Emma Rice, has certainly shaken the old place up. It’s almost unrecognisable. Huge white plastic orbs…
How Nairobi gangsters would vote in the EU referendum
Nairobi The gangsters hadn’t heard of Brexit. ‘What is this “Breaks it”?’ they asked my friend hours after kidnapping…
How do we save the elephant? It’s simple: eat them
Laikipia I sip my Tusker beer on the veranda, staring at the elephant. He’s not the elephant in the…
Les Blancs at the Olivier is good-ish, but it won't be a classic
Les Blancs had a troubled birth. In 1965 several unfinished drafts of the play were entrusted by its dying author,…
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