invention
Patently wrong
In the past 30 years, I have driven about 8,000 miles in France in right-hand-drive cars. And I would be…
Progress is painful
One of my long-held beliefs is that evolutionary biology should be taught extensively in schools. There may be some objections…
James Bond and Q in one
Early one morning in October 1874 a barge carrying three barrels of benzoline and five tons of gunpowder blew up…
Their Brilliant Careers: The Fantastic Lives of Sixteen Extraordinary Australian Writers, by Ryan O’Neill reviewed
Almost 120 years ago, the Australian writer Henry Lawson offered some counsel to those who came after him, writing that…
The keys to Chinese
The history of industry is the story of the reduction of complexity to easily manageable, replicable components or actions. But…
A clash of two cultures
‘They fuck you up, your mum and dad.’ Philip Larkin’s most famous line has appeared in the Spectator repeatedly, and…
Whoever invented referendums needs a kicking
My favourite quote of the year so far comes from the author Fay Weldon. ‘If this were an all-woman society,’…
Ruling the digital waves
Everyone, we hear these days, must learn to code. Being able to program computers is the only way to be…
The parlour-game approach
A group of retired Somerset farmers were sitting about in the early 1960s, so Ian Mortimer’s story goes, debating which…
