England
Living history
It has been a while since the BBC really pushed the boat out on the epic history documentary front. Perhaps…
The power of collective grievance
When last Sunday Pope Francis took the brave step of acknowledging the Armenian tragedy as the ‘first genocide of the…
The war on rural England
The coalition is letting developers concrete over the countryside, but that won’t help young people buy houses
A divided inheritance
When we consider poets who perished before their day, thoughts turn to the Romantics or the war victims: Burns, Keats,…
It takes a village (or six)
Can England’s 10,000 rural churches survive?
Low life
My grandson and I had a lovely hour-long swim at the leisure centre. We had the learner pool to ourselves…
Hunting
This time three years ago, I hadn’t jumped a single thing for almost ten years. This season, I am happily…
Diary
An embarrassing confession: in the late 1960s, I was a Trotskyite. But that period of political adolescence has its uses.…
The fairy census
An eccentric English tradition has attracted fresh academic attention
Cider-making
The fabulous October weather is now just a memory but it made for a golden, old-fashioned apple day down in…
Why counties still count
If you want real local identity to thrive in England, put the old county boundaries back on the map
Letters
Nothing to fear Sir: So long as we are not breaking any law, we have nothing to fear from the…
Dogs of war
I’ve spent years in conflict zones. But the scariest thing that’s happened to me involved two bull terriers on a Norfolk beach
Everywhere should be more like Essex
Apart from the Wye Valley, where I grew up, there are only two places in Britain I’d consider living: Kent…
I’ll never feel the same about the Scots
I doubt I’m alone among English readers of this magazine in having felt uncomfortable with our last issue. ‘Please stay…
Borderline personalities
Is national character real? If so, how is it formed?
Journey’s end
Is it just me or are almost all TV documentaries completely unwatchable these days? I remember when I first started…
The eternal beauty of John Clare
This has been a terrible year for horseflies. It’s bad enough if you’re human: often by the time you swat…
Diary
Could there be a more timely advert for the Better Together campaign than on the field of sport? What the…
Voice of Britain
Shakespeare defined our united national culture – and now he can help save it
England learn their lesson
My friend Miles was bowling in a festival of wandering cricket clubs in Oxford the other day. First wicket down…
Captain courageous
Andrew Strauss is a serious man and Driving Ambition (Hodder, £20, Spectator Bookshop, £18) is a serious book. It looks…
It’s the summer of the topless man,and there’s nothing we can do to stop it
Topless men. What does that mean, then? I was opposite one on the tube the other day, heading north from…
