New York
Life, of a sort, still goes on in New York City
‘How are you bearing up?’ ‘Is everyone terrified?’ ‘What’s the mood?’ These are the questions concerned family and friends are…
Life and death in New York City
No matter where in the apartment I am, if I sit very still, I hear a siren. Over the 18…
Bursting the Cuomo bubble
Andrew Cuomo is having a moment. He enjoys ubiquitous coverage. His press conferences attract viewership second only to the president’s.…
Consider the costs
Less than 24 hours after California governor Gavin Newsom closed ‘non-essential’ businesses and ordered Californians to stay inside to avoid…
Susan Hill: The brilliance of the NHS cancer service
Exactly 50 years ago I drove, for the first visit of many, across country to Aldeburgh in Suffolk, following the…
In 2020, Trump must save the cities
This article is in The Spectator’s December 2019 US edition. Subscribe here. In 2014, America’s progressives got a wake-up call. That year,…
The cops are impotent in lawless New York
New York Things are heating up, in both London and Nueva York, as this place should correctly be called.…
Don’t write off Joey Salads
Freshman Democrat Rep. Max Rose must steel himself for a tough re-election scrum in his Republican-leaning district. An unconventional, Trumpian…
An elegy for New York
New York The master of the love letter to New York, E.B. White, eloquently described the city as a place…
Farewell to Bill de Blasio, 2020’s least consequential candidate
Friday news drops are often saved for surprising or important stories. What NYC mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Morning…
Pity poor Candace Bushnell, still flogging Sex and the City at 60
On paper, Candace Bushnell and the medieval warlord El Cid don’t have a lot in common. The first made a…
A drag army in waiting: This Brutal House, by Niven Govinden, reviewed
Niven Govinden’s This Brutal House is set in the demi-monde of the New York vogue ball. This is an organised,…
Parallel worlds: The Heavens, by Sandra Newman, reviewed
The Heavens is Sandra Newman’s eighth book. It follows novels featuring, variously, sex addiction, Buddhism and a post-apocalyptic teen dystopia;…
The death of New York’s nightlife
New York This is my last week in the Bagel and I’m going to give it the old college…
My prescription to make New York happy again
New York This place feels funny, a bit like Beirut, where Christians, Jews, Muslims, Druze and encamped Palestinians live…
Writing as revenge: Memories of the Future, by Siri Hustvedt, reviewed
Why are people interested in their past? One possible reason is that you can interact with it, recruiting it as…
Why did no one think the premise of Mums Make Porn was questionable?
What can parents do about the avalanche of pornography available to their children on tablet, phone and laptop? This question…
I’m back in New York: the city that’s perennially offended
New York Goodbye, snow-capped peaks; hello, swampy brown East River. So long, fresh alpine air; greetings to choking diesel…
New York: the fact – and fiction
New York At times I used to think the place was real. The New York of films, that is. The…
An extraordinary encounter in a New York taxi
New York If I wrote this in one of those newspaper diaries about metropolitan life, no one would believe…
A love letter to Brooklyn Heights
New York I now know it by heart. Brooklyn Heights, that is. It takes 35 minutes by cab from where…
Requiem for New York
New York In the dark she still looks good. The mystery and magnetism linger until dawn, then you slowly…
Why truth gets you nowhere
New York There is fear and loathing in this city, with men looking over their shoulders for the thought…
Partying with the Clintons
Gstaad The bells are ringing, the bells are ringing, ding dong, ding dong. The cows are down from up…
Taki: The forgotten heroes of Christmas
It’s that time of year again. Yippee! And get your wallets out. Scrooges are no longer tolerated at Christmas, although…
