Africa
Wild life
Nairobi The gangsters hadn’t heard of Brexit. ‘What is this “Breaks it”?’ they asked my friend hours after kidnapping…
Wild life
Laikipia I sip my Tusker beer on the veranda, staring at the elephant. He’s not the elephant in the…
Deluded continent
Les Blancs had a troubled birth. In 1965 several unfinished drafts of the play were entrusted by its dying author,…
Better that the Americans take over the London Stock Exchange
The London Stock Exchange is no longer the red-hot crucible it once was, given the multifarious ways by which shares,…
Not so happy valley
Simon Barnes opens with a presumably true idea, that we are all in search of our own versions of paradise…
Rhodes’s statue should remain, on one condition
Lobengula was the second king of the Matabele people in what is now Zimbabwe. He was also the last. Cecil…
Wild life
On New Year’s Day I took the family out for an evening walk on the ranch. Along the verges, lush…
Rwanda’s new tragedy
The ultimate ‘donor darling’ is becoming a dictatorship whose critics live in fear
The James Herriot of Africa
Great Rift Valley The mare hangs her head; her neck is swollen, her eyes bloody red, crammed by flies. She…
Letters
The power of creativity Sir: A rounded education should encourage creativity as well as maths, English, science and history if…
The polyphonous Babel of global music
‘Following custom, when the Siamese conquered the Khmer they carried off much of the population, including most of their musicians,…
First-rate firsts
It has become something of a truism among writers’ groups and in articles offering advice on how best to secure…
Just giving
Seven years ago I wrote here about a site called Kiva.org. I had met the co-founder of this charity when…
The invasion of Italy
More than 50,000 boat people have arrived already this year, with many more expected
Wild life
Laikipia, Kenya Out cross-country running on the farm in Kenya recently, I came face-to-face with a gang of bull…
Migrants face many dangers. Are we one of them?
A few weeks ago someone very dear to me passed on a question about The Spectator, asked them by a…
Comics’ trip
Who says British television lacks imagination? You might have thought, for example, that every possible combination of comedian and travel…
Dark humour for the dark continent
‘I’ve come back because I love the mess. Anarchy. Madness. Things falling apart.’ The lines belong to Roland Nair, one…
In and out of Africa
‘Double ouzo, hold the Coke,’ Mum ordered at the Mkushi Country Club bar, during spanikopita night. ‘My daughter’s a lesbian.’…
Wild life
Juba I discovered a 1954 Morris Minor parked outside the Catholic mission station in Mopoi, South Sudan. The car had…
Do I care about Liberia? Do you? Does Oxfam?
It’s strange how quickly we all forgot about Ebola. Speak for yourself, you might say — and I will. Until…
It’s all kicking off again in the Islamic world
They have been burning churches and murdering Christians again in Niger. You’d think that they’d have more immediately pressing concerns…
Wild life
Hell’s Kitchen My ambition to open a fish and chip shop in Mogadishu has not happened yet, though I remain…
Botswana
As a boy camping with my father on safaris deep in the African bush, there were no tents involved; we…
Wild life
Laikipia We are privileged to live with lions on the farm. We hear them most nights. We encounter them frequently.…
