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High Life
As Cole Porter might have said, only second-rate people go on and on about their inner lives. Self-analysis, according to…
Low life
In 2001, aged 44, I was hired to write a weekly column for this august paper, and for the first…
Real life
The man was unloading cycles from the boot of his car just as I was about to take the turning…
Low Life
In a cave once used as a stable and now abandoned, I found a wooden crate containing a dozen tiny…
High Life
Gstaad So the days — and months — drift by. This once peaceful Alpine town is packed with rich refugees…
Real Life
The toad who lives at the bottom of the garden in the pile of bricks beneath the potting table was…
Real life
The spaniel curled up in her basket with one of my shoes, one of his socks and a packet of…
Low life
With my signed and dated laissez-passer in my pocket, I trotted down to the village to see if I could…
High life
Look at it this way: we’re all doing Desert Island Discs nowadays, and unless you’ve got the bug, it’s a…
High life
Desperately boring times but very healthy ones. No parties, no girls, not too much boozing, lots of smoking and reading…
Real Life
The game was up when I put on a pair of size 14 jodhpurs at the country store and they…
Britain has its first punk-rock government
The most surprising thing about the letter from Guardian and Observer journalists moaning about Suzanne Moore’s supposed ‘transphobia’ is that…
High life
Gstaad Rumours about the virus are flying around this village. First there was talk of a hotel being temporarily…
Low life
The greater the enervation, it is said, the greater the appreciation of a work of art. There was no place…
I’m getting my coronavirus bunker ready
We have now got past the absurd stage of glaring in a reproachful manner at Chinese people on the tube.…
The war the government must win
We will rue the day we all decided bullying was a bad thing. The consequence is that the inept, the…
High Life
Gstaad It feels like a sepia-tinged melodrama, one directed by the great schlock master Sam Wood. Driving along the winding…
Low life
Joyce Marriott of Pyrton, Oxford, has written a letter to the Times on the subject of how a person’s imagination…
Real life
Nice of the NHS to send an advisory text about coronavirus, because I was wondering. Is it possible to have…
The blindness of cultural Marxism
Words we are not allowed to use any more now include ‘cultural Marxism’. Suella Braverman, now the Attorney General, used…
High Life
Gstaad I was not aware that there is a group of Spectatorfans who meet in French-speaking Switzerland. They contacted me…
Low life
Seven round the table for dinner. Wild mushroom risotto. I was told to sit next to Michael. Good. Michael makes…
Real life
Mr Benn has been in touch because he wants a right of reply to an article I wrote about my…
Citizenship is a privilege, not a right
A couple of people in the Hornsey and Wood Green Labour party have come up with a fascinating suggestion —…
High Life
Gstaad Lenin Moreno is in trouble, despite his very unchristian first name. For any of you unfamiliar with the name,…






























