cats

A choice of this year’s gift books

2 December 2023 9:00 am

Sporting trivia, the language of cats and the comic genius of Barry Cryer feature among the best of the year’s stocking-fillers

Is your pet killing the planet?

9 September 2023 9:00 am

Having a pet is worse for the planet than flying

Move fast to snap up one of Elizabeth Blackadder’s sleek cats at the Scottish Gallery

29 July 2023 9:00 am

If there’s one thing the internet knows, it’s that cats sell. The Scottish painter Elizabeth Blackadder, who died in 2021…

Letters: Why we obeyed lockdown

10 September 2022 9:00 am

Why we allowed it Sir: In her article ‘Why didn’t more people resist lockdown?’ (3 September), Lionel Shriver partially answers…

How crazy was Louis Wain?

18 December 2021 9:00 am

Before Tom Kitten, before Felix the Cat, before Thomas ‘Tom’ Cat, Sylvester James Pussycat Sr, Top Cat and Fat Freddy’s…

Letters: Immunity passports are nothing to fear

27 February 2021 9:00 am

Nothing to fear Sir: Many of us await the day when we can travel abroad for much-anticipated holidays — but…

Salmond, Sturgeon and why The Spectator went to court

20 February 2021 9:00 am

Did Nicola Sturgeon lie to the Scottish parliament? A Holyrood committee into the now infamous Alex Salmond affair has been…

‘People confuse sadness with darkness’: the complicated world of Mary Gaitskill

19 December 2020 9:00 am

An interview with the American novelist Mary Gaitskill

Gift books for Christmas — reviewed by Marcus Berkmann

7 November 2020 9:00 am

We have a fine crop of Christmas gift books this year, so good that some of them actually qualify as…

Today’s undergraduates are customers – and the customer is always right

22 August 2020 9:00 am

If you’re looking for a sign of the academic times, you could do worse than consider the image, published in…

Dear Mary: How do I tell my neighbours I forgot to feed their cat?

8 August 2020 9:00 am

Q. We invited two friends to supper in London. As they came in they said they should order their taxi…

Letters: Why is the problem of working-class white boys not considered worth solving?

25 July 2020 9:00 am

Left-behind boys Sir: Christopher Snowdon’s perceptive and informative article (‘The lost boys’, 18 July) reflects perfectly my own experiences in…

She was just a damn cat – and I loved her

18 July 2020 9:00 am

I’ve never dug a grave before. But that was how I spent my Sunday afternoon. Three feet is awfully deep…

Top of my must-watch mustn't-watch: Cats revisited

30 May 2020 9:00 am

At the outset of lockdown I gave you my list of top mustn’t-watch films — that is, the ones that…

Riveting – and disgusting: BFI's 'Dogs v Cats' and 'Eating In' collections reviewed

9 May 2020 9:00 am

This week I’d like to point you in the direction of the British Film Institute and its free online archive…

How The Spectator discovered Helen Mirren

24 April 2020 11:00 pm

From Enoch Powell to Danny La Rue: Hilary Spurling looks back on her time in charge of the arts and books pages in the 1960s

Letters: Cats are clearly right-wing

1 February 2020 9:00 am

Enemies on the left Sir: James Forsyth’s article ‘Labour must change to win’ (25 January) describes how little appetite the…

I’m at risk of becoming a cat person

18 January 2020 9:00 am

Just before Christmas our cat Runty died and I wasn’t in any rush to find a replacement. I like cats…

Letters: Vote Gove, get Corbyn

8 June 2019 9:00 am

Trump and Brexit Sir: Your leading article (‘The Trump card’, 1 June) states that ‘May’s successor should seek to capitalise…

Why vegans must not own cats

1 June 2019 9:00 am

Is it ethical for vegans to own cats? It’s an interesting question because vegans look set to take over —…

The holy pedigree of cats

20 April 2019 9:00 am

It is claimed that the prophet Muhammad loved cats. His favourite was called Muezza and he would do without his…

The middle-class cats that are ditching meat

12 January 2019 9:00 am

As I write, my cats and a visitor from the next street are hammering into their food, at nearly £5…

Jan Morris. Credit: Colin McPherson/Getty Images

Jan Morris talks to herself — about music, irony and cats

15 September 2018 9:00 am

To Jan Morris, I am anathema. That goes, too, for David Attenborough. It is a word that this unarguably great…

Adventures of a hell-cat in heaven

4 June 2016 9:00 am

Over the weekend I officiated at a funeral. Earlier in the morning there had been lowering rain clouds, but by…

A dispatch from a family of fooshers

2 April 2016 9:00 am

I’d like this to have been one of those Spectator diaries that gives the ordinary reader a glimpse into the…