Air travel
Real life
When my black passport arrived in the post, I decided to take a trip. I’m not a good flier, so…
Into thin air
Mark Vanhoenacker dreams of my nightmares. Ever since he was a young boy, he fantasised about piloting airplanes. Ever since…
Wild life
On the BOAC VC10 flights to Nairobi, the pilots would invite children like me up to sit in the cockpit…
Prepare for take-off
Come Fly the World is not the book I thought I was getting. The slightly (surely deliberately) pulpy cover —…
High life
Gstaad Chekhovian boredom ruled supreme, but the loss of my luggage brought instant relief. Anger beats boredom by a mile,…
Low life
There was only a handful of us arriving at Bristol on flight 6114 from Nice. Oscar and I had the…
Low life
‘There’s no need to wipe down your tray table,’ screeched Heidi, chief steward of the ‘amazing team you have looking…
The vulgarity of easy money: lessons from Malaysia’s mega-scandal
When I worked in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur long ago, my office looked across Jalan Tun Razak, a…
Letters
Masking the truth Sir: Matthew Parris is right to laud the importance of embracing the scientific method (‘Why should opinion…
Flying by the seat of our pants
Disaster struck the Young family last Friday. My 12-year-old son Charlie woke up with a temperature. Ordinarily, that wouldn’t matter,…
Barometer
In the beginning How did Britain mark its entry into the European Economic Community on 1 January 1973? There were no…
Looking for a new idea? Try borrowing an old one
Recently I suggested a new approach to commuter-train overcrowding. It simply involved reformulating the problem by accepting that not all…
A non-stop flight to Perth showed me that better beats bigger
A few weeks ago I flew to Sydney to speak at a conference. The first leg was on the new…
Spending 23 hours in economy class will cure anyone’s wanderlust
For some reason, I decided to go to the other side of the world for Christmas. I may never do…
Diary
The Queen’s 90th birthday celebrations start this week with the real thing and barely stop until her official birthday in…
Diary
Killing time in a Heathrow first-class lounge, I notice how many men adopt an unmistakable ‘first-class lounge’ persona. They stand…
The clock towers bigger than Big Ben
Bigger Bens Big Ben will have a £29m refurbishment. Who has the biggest clock tower? Kremlin Clock: Installed on the…
Heathrow’s third runway could still be halted – here’s how
The Great British Runway final between Heathrow and Gatwick is beginning to look like a game of two halves. The…
Barometer
How many cheats? More data on members of extramarital dating site Ashley Madison were put online. How widespread is adultery?…
Barometer
Caught working The government announced a crackdown on illegal workers. How many illegal workers are caught in Britain? — From…
Barometer
Bank job Should we buy shares in companies which print banknotes in expectation of one getting to print millions of…
Letters
Enemies within Sir: I thought Matthew Parris was typically incisive in his last column, but perhaps not quite as much…
Did the £20 million Norwegian’s pay row make BG cheaper for Shell?
Helge Lund was widely expected to go into domestic politics when he ended his successful tenure as head of Statoil,…
Why plane crashes are getting weirder
In the late 1980s, the parks service in the United States were concerned about the deterioration of the stonework on…
A view from the departure lounge: why Heathrow expansion may never happen
Easter is a good time to talk about airports — or perhaps a bad time, if you bought your Spectator…
