First World War

‘Camo 15-Inch Howitzer’, 1916, by F.J. Mears

Authenticity over artistry: Brushes with War reviewed

22 September 2018 9:00 am

The first world war paintings of Paul Nash are so vivid and emotive that they have come to embody, as…

Still life: Iris Bry, Laura Smet and Natalie Baye in The Guardians

A captivating addition to the filmography of the first world war: The Guardians reviewed

18 August 2018 9:00 am

There are moments in The Guardians when you can imagine you’re in the wrong art form. Time stills, the frame…

‘Prostitute and Disabled War Veteran. Two Victims of Capitalism’, 1923, by Otto Dix

Sorrow and pity are no guarantee of artistic success: Aftermath at Tate Britain reviewed

23 June 2018 9:00 am

Some disasters could not occur in this age of instant communication. The first world war is a case in point:…

Donald Hankey: a remarkable – and neglected – English voice

16 June 2018 9:00 am

Last year the BBC radio drama department received 3,797 scripts from hopeful authors, of which just 33 were recommended to…

Akram Khan in Mirella Weingarten’s starkly stupendous set

A smidge of self-indulgence amid the power and grace: Akram Khan’s Xenos reviewed

9 June 2018 9:00 am

‘Comedy Sunil Lanba, Salman Quaraishi, Omar Syed…’ Names play from a crackling gramophone. We hear what they were before the…

From the archive: Brothers-in-arms

26 May 2018 9:00 am

From ‘The new crusade’, 25 May 1918: It is curious to think how great must soon have been the spiritual…

From the First Battle of Ypres to Brexit

3 March 2018 9:00 am

Poperinghe, Bailleul, Wytschaete, Gheluvelt, Ploegsteert, Messines, Zonnebeke, Passchendaele. The other week I grandiosely claimed that I have been reading about…

The mischief of Bolshevism

20 January 2018 9:00 am

From ‘The Bolshevik negotiations with Germany’, 19 January 1918: We think that the fact is fairly emerging from the negotiations…

Wilfred Owen’s troubling obsession with young boys

6 January 2018 9:00 am

This year is the centenary of the Armistice to end what Siegfried Sassoon called ‘the world’s worst wound’: the first…

How a human body burns

9 December 2017 9:00 am

I took a dab of antiseptic gel and rubbed my hands together. ‘Alone tonight, sir?’ said the charming head waiter.…

When heroes come home to be husbands again

2 December 2017 9:00 am

From ‘Comrades of the great war’, The Spectator, 1 December 1917: Eventually all will be over, even the shouting; and…

What if the first world war had ended a year earlier?

18 November 2017 9:00 am

One hundred years ago this month, my great-great grandfather sat down to compose a letter which would finish a long…

‘Soviet Union Art Exhibition’, Zurich 1931, by Valentina Kulagina

The art of persuasion

28 October 2017 9:00 am

It’s hard to admire communist art with an entirely clear conscience. The centenary of the October revolution, which falls this…

Unhappy days

30 September 2017 9:00 am

Scriptwriters love to feast on the lives of children’s authors. The themes tend not to vary: they may have brought…

Stretcher-parties wading through the morass sometimes took six hours to bring in casualties. Left: near Boesinghe, 1 August 1917 (from Chris McNabb’s Passchendaele 1917)

Drowning in mud and blood

29 July 2017 9:00 am

George Orwell’s suggestion that the British remember only the military disasters of the first world war is certainly being borne…

1916: Sorry, President Wilson, but this is not a gentlemanly war

4 June 2016 9:00 am

From ‘President Wilson and the Lessons of History’, 2 June 1916: Emphatically it is not a war of what we…

The Spectator, 1916: To win the war, lose the dogs

28 May 2016 9:00 am

From ‘Food dictatorship’, The Spectator, 27 May 1916: Nobody would like to see the whole race of dogs exterminated, but…

This new opera had the audience in tears

21 May 2016 9:00 am

‘So you’re going to see the gay sex opera?’ exclaimed my friend, open-mouthed. People certainly seem to have had some…

The first world war comes home to a Kensington bus

21 May 2016 9:00 am

From ‘The softening of street manners’, The Spectator, 20 May 1916: Generally the public opinion of the ’bus entirely upholds…

The untrustworthy Winston Churchill, 1916

14 May 2016 9:00 am

From ‘Colonel Winston Churchill’, The Spectator, 13 May 1916: The return of Colonel Churchill to the House of Commons, which we are…

The Spectator’s advice on keeping Ireland quiet in 1916

7 May 2016 9:00 am

From ‘Reconstruction’, The Spectator, 5 May 1916: What Ireland wants just now is firm and judicious military government. The rebellion of last…

(Photo: Getty)

From the archives: why every fit man must volunteeer

23 April 2016 9:00 am

From ‘The Volunteer Training Corps’, The Spectator, 8 April 1916: If we were the Government, we would state plainly that in the…

From the archive: A day in the trenches

16 April 2016 9:00 am

From ‘Observing: an average day’, The Spectator, 15 April 1916: 5.10 a.m. The signaller on duty at the telephone has just said…

A forgotten hospital that was the British Empire’s gift to our Russian allies

16 April 2016 9:00 am

The Royal College of Nursing (founded in 1916 with 34 members, but now with 440,000) is busy celebrating its centenary;…

Irish Citizen Army soldiers on rooftops in Dublin before the Easter Rising of 1916

The holy relics of the Easter Rising: from hallowed flags to rebel biscuits

19 March 2016 9:00 am

The reverence for those involved in the Easter Rising is evident in an exhibition devoted to its centenary, says Harry Mount