Dogs
A short history of dogs in war
In his own inimitable way, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has unleashed his dogs of war on Vladimir Putin and once…
Diary
A princess of Hanover wrote in her diary: ‘My 30th birthday. There must be some mistake.’ Substitute 30th for 80th…
It’s hard not to pity Ghislaine Maxwell
It’s hard not to feel a batsqueak of pity for Ghislaine Maxwell — 500 days and counting in solitary confinement.…
My nightmare weekend of deer and dogs
Caroline and I are just back from a weekend break in Scotland and, nice though it was, I hadn’t realised…
Good dogs v. lame jokes
Black Widow is the latest Marvel film and although I’d sworn off these films a while ago, due to sheer…
My life as a dogsbody
Even a small dog can be quite high maintenance. No, I’m not talking about Mali, our one-year-old cavapoochon, but Bertie,…
Dear Mary
Q. We have old friends who live in the northern hinterlands and have a property in Provence where they normally…
Real life
Watching a woman driving a dog past my house like a carthorse is just another ‘new normal’ of lockdown. This…
Spacs and the City: if London won’t, Amsterdam will
This column generally takes a sceptical view of financial novelties and gimmicks. So my antennae have twitched in recent days…
A quick fix
How Boris and Carrie can bring Dilyn to heel
Diary
Santa Monica is a soothing place to be locked down. I moved here from New York for four months in…
Diary
Spring in Somerset — again. If someone had told me last February that I’d spend seven of the next 12…
Diary
We weren’t long into Bruce Castor’s opening speech defending Donald Trump in his impeachment trial before we knew it was…
Presidential dogs
From the moment Donald Trump’s presidency began, he was lacking something. But Joe Biden is about to make up for…
Diary
Real men are not supposed to confess to feeling fear. But I am frightened, second time round, about the plague.…
A dog is not just for lockdown
The Dogs Trust charity received 114 calls on 27 and 28 December from people wanting to offload their puppies. No,…
Single girl’s notebook
What this government needs is a good dose of the London mob, which at its height in the 18th century…
The Spectator’s Notes
Last week, I wrote about ‘Frost & Lewis’ (David and Oliver), leaders of our country’s team at the Brexit negotiations,…
Dog pounds
The hidden costs of the lockdown puppy boom
The puppy has won
Will the huge surge in demand for puppies and kittens during lockdown lead to a lot of abandoned pets when…
Doggie style
This week I’d like to point you in the direction of the British Film Institute and its free online archive…
Stinky Malinky is growing on me
Since the beginning of the lockdown, Caroline has been congratulating herself for having bought a puppy ‘just in time’. She…
Quarantine with our new puppy will send me barking
When the news leaked at the weekend that the government was considering telling those aged 70 and over to self-quarantine…
Pet peeve
Let animals be animals
I’m at risk of becoming a cat person
Just before Christmas our cat Runty died and I wasn’t in any rush to find a replacement. I like cats…
