Christmas
Christmas Notebook
As I strolled through the aisles in a large department store, I almost choked when I read a large display…
Tis the season for disagreeing with your spouse about everything
The older I get, the more Scrooge-like I become. I’m dyspeptic, misanthropic, curmudgeonly, parsimonious and unsentimental. Caroline, by contrast, is…
Seasonal advice from the great and the good
Clare Balding I love a good walk on Boxing Day followed by watching the racing at Kempton. Avoid the internet.…
My surreal Christmas in hospital with a dangerously ill child
My surreal Christmas in hospital with a dangerously ill child
Why ‘safe’ is Dot Wordsworth’s word of the year
‘Makes me feel sick,’ said my husband, referring not to the third mince pie of the morning (in Advent, supposedly…
Was my article the inspiration for this brilliant BBC dramatisation?
The two things I hate most about Christmas are a) Advertland showing me how sparkly and joyous my home and…
Radio is flowering because it’s so much more potent than TV
Who would have thought in this visually obsessed age of YouTube, selfies and Instagram that radio, pure audio, no images…
Christmas lists
William Brown had the right idea about Christmas lists. Under the heading ‘Things I Want for Christmas’, he requests: a…
Long life
I have always found Thanksgiving, which was celebrated in the United States last week, the most agreeable and least stressful…
Long life
For the past two and a half years my brother John has been living next door to me in the…
Diary
Every year Christmas comes earlier and earlier in America. Cards, baubles and imitation trees were being sold in the big…
A London Christmas
I have been having my vault done over. Not, as you might think, the family strong room, but the place…
Save the carol!
A glorious, healthy and intensely pleasurable tradition is in danger
Winter Diary
A few days ago I went truffle hunting in Piedmont. It’s been a bumper year for white truffles in northern…
Snow men
In owning a flock of artificial sheep, Joseph Farquharson must have been unusual among Highland lairds a century ago. His…
Low life
After lunch on Christmas Day my father always stood at the sink in his apron and yellow Marigolds and did…
Long life
More than ever this year I find friends planning to go abroad for Christmas, some to countries such as India…
No crib for a bed
I could never understand as a little girl why we sang: ‘Away in a manger, no crib for a bed.’…
Barometer
Dear Santas A £22.50 a head Christmas theme park in Warwickshire designed by Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen closed temporarily for improvements after…
Barometer
Yeah, Bob, they know The answer to the rhetorical question posed by the Band Aid single, ‘Do they know it’s…
Eat, drink and be merry…
... for tomorrow traditional seasonal rituals may just be ghostly memories of a vanished world, says Melanie McDonagh
The Spectator’s Notes
In Dublin, where I am writing this column, people are watching the Scottish referendum campaign more closely than in London.…
Dear Mary
Q. Over the years my close friends locally have been giving each other birthday and Christmas presents. Now, as I…
