New Zealand
Has the shine come off Saint Jacinda?
For a short time it seemed as if Jacinda Ardern, the popular premier of New Zealand, could do no wrong…
Why is New Zealand afraid of criticising China?
It is becoming harder and harder to ignore China’s aggressive behaviour. As I say in the magazine this week, China…
Letters
The key to the Union Sir: ‘Love-bombing’ the Scottish electorate with supplemental spending in devolved areas (‘The break-up’, 27 February)…
Long-distance learning
Britain needs a Kiwi-style national correspondence school
The myth of Saint Jacinda
Every time I read another excitable media article about New Zealand’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern, I am reminded of an…
Prepared for the worst
This book could not have been published at a better time — nor, in a way, at a worse time.…
Wine to lock down
I was once invited to the Cheltenham races and found the experience underwhelming. Everything was too respectable: not nearly Hibernian…
Portrait of the week: Trains stop, a volcano erupts and the nation goes to the polls
Home The nation went to the polls. Engineering works compounded the misery of passengers on the South Western Railway where…
How common are volcanic eruptions?
Volcanic eruptions At least six people were killed when White Island, a volcano off New Zealand’s North Island, erupted. How…
Full of fabulous, but baffling, things: Oceania reviewed
At six in the morning of 20 July 1888, Robert Louis Stevenson first set eyes on a Pacific Island. As…
A paean to lesbian love: Aftershocks, by A.N. Wilson, reviewed
The polymath writer A.N.Wilson returns to the novel in Aftershocks, working on the template of the 2011 earthquake which devastated…
The eradication of South Georgia’s rats proves we can do anything – even Brexit
The extermination of every single one of South Georgia’s rats, for the sake of its birds, was confirmed at a…
Corpses, clues and Kiwis in Ngaio Marsh’s posthumous novel
Publishing loves a brand. Few authors of fiction create characters who reach this semi-divine status, but when they do, even…
Spending 23 hours in economy class will cure anyone’s wanderlust
For some reason, I decided to go to the other side of the world for Christmas. I may never do…
New Zealand
On my first night in Christchurch, I woke at 3.32 a.m. to what felt like an explosion. My bed was…
Two big hitters leave the crease
Two great men have just bowed out from their chosen trades and it is bloody sad. The New Zealand cricket…
Matters of life and death
‘Bait by Cartier,’ she growls as her priceless diamond bracelet is strapped to a piece of rope and dropped overboard…
Suffering in style
Nobody Is Ever Missing takes its title from John Berryman’s ‘Dream Song 29’, a poem which I’d always thought related…
Diary
I am back in the UK for work. Great time to turn up — after the grim, grey grind of…
It has to stop?
Upspeak can damage your career prospects
Captain courageous
Andrew Strauss is a serious man and Driving Ambition (Hodder, £20, Spectator Bookshop, £18) is a serious book. It looks…
Singing under cardboard
To undertake a concert tour of New Zealand’s cathedrals at the moment is to be constantly reminded of the destructive…
