Gypsies
Cornwall’s gypsies face eviction
‘Don’t use our real names,’ says the teenage gypsy. ‘Other gypsies will laugh at us.’ Even in a tracksuit, the…
Travellers’ tales
In the absence of their own written records, they have been ‘invented’ and misrepresented in Europe ever since their arrival in the Middle Ages, says Klaus-Michael Bogdal
Why do we envy nomads but treat Travellers so badly?
Oh for the open road! Who doesn’t want to abandon the suffocating suburbs – waking to an alarm at the…
When in Rome…
I know I keep saying that in Decline of the West terms we’re all currently living in Rome, circa 400…
Balkan brass
When brass instruments with button-operated valves were introduced in the second half of the 19th century, music-making changed. Once requiring…
Celebrations of song and humanity
‘All my life, always and in every way, I shall have one objective: the good of Hungary and the Hungarian…
Letters
An independent policy Sir: James Curran’s review of my book Dangerous Allies (‘Radical nationalist’, 17 May) showed a significant and…
An expert castle-squatter
When Nick Hunt first read Patrick Leigh Fermor’s account of his youthful trudge across Europe in A Time of Gifts…
Letters
Not fair on cops Sir: Nick Cohen (‘PCs gone mad’, 26 October) claims that the police are deliberately attacking the press…
The Spectator’s Notes
I do not know whether the Greek gypsy couple accused of abducting a girl called Maria are guilty, but I…
What do we call the people who abducted Maria? It’s a minefield
How should we describe the people who allegedly abducted that little girl in Greece, after a neighbour claimed that they…
