Africa
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…
Elephant in the room
Burning stockpiles of ivory was meant to wipe out poaching. After nearly 30 years, is it working?
Bard goes to Bollywood
The Globe’s new chatelaine, Emma Rice, has certainly shaken the old place up. It’s almost unrecognisable. Huge white plastic orbs…
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…
