War
The dumbing down of the Reith Lectures
It’s been a heavyweight week on Radio 4 with the start of the annual series of Reith Lectures and a…
From the archive: the future of Scandinavia
From ‘The Baltic question’, 15 June 1918: The future of Scandinavia and the Baltic must depend on the outcome of…
The tragedy of Syria: how protest spiralled into savagery
The fateful day five years ago began like any other for the family. A pot of black tea with cardamon…
BBC2’s Civilisations seems unable to decide what civilisation is
The presenters of the BBC 2 programme on civilisations seem unable to decide what civilisation is. Socrates would therefore wonder…
Ratings war
Planning for the ‘war of the future’ is something generals and politicians have been doing for the past 150 years.…
High life
After the heat in Greece, the Alps are cool and green and very comfortable. My sensei Richard Amos is over…
Russia’s revolutionary soul
From ‘The Russian awakening’, 6 July 1917: M. Kerensky, the Russian Minister of War, has kept his word. He promised…
South Georgia Notebook
The terrible news that Henry Worsley had died just 30 miles short of crossing the Antarctic continent unsupported reached me…
Bad driving
From ‘The Conscription of Wealth’, The Spectator, 22 January 1916: At recent race meetings streams of motor-cars have proceeded from…
Compelling evidence
From ‘The Position of the Government’, The Spectator, 15 January 1916: Any man who knew the nature of Englishmen, or…
Coming up for air
Gosh what a breath of fresh air was Andrew Davies’s War & Peace adaptation (BBC1, Sundays) after all the stale…
Faith is left, right. . . and central
An interview with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby
It is time to join the fight against IS in Syria
The Islamic State is as monstrous an enemy as we have seen in recent history. It crucifies and decapitates its…
The Spectator’s Notes
When Jeremy Corbyn says it is better to bring people to trial than to shoot them, he is right. So…
Battle fatigue
Can anyone explain this sudden enthusiasm for Agincourt, that unexpected victory over the French, now being celebrated, or rather commemorated,…
Sodom in Potsdam
Reacquaintance with Germany is long overdue for most English people. Before 1914 it was at least as familiar as France…
Coming up for air
Jenny McCartney talks to the celebrated photojournalist about war, guilt and Aylan
Loose women
Late Night Woman’s Hour has created a Twitter storm with its twice-weekly (Thursdays and Fridays) doses of ‘mischievous and unbridled…
These I have loved
In the preface to his great collection of essays The Dyer’s Hand, W.H. Auden claimed: ‘I prefer a critic’s notebooks…
Sexed-up pacifism
Big-screen documentaries never change the world. Blackfish has not shortened the queues to see maltreated killer whales leap through hoops…
Boys on the march
In dance, it’s usually the moment the boys start fighting that challenges your suspension of disbelief. Synchronised fencing (MacMillan’s Romeo…
Evil under the sun
Peter Parker discerns classical allusion amid the horror in two books commemorating the centenary of the Gallipoli campaign
The power of nightmares
It is not impossible to create good art that makes a political point, just highly unusual. Goya’s ‘Third of May’…
Notes from a ceasefire
Ukraine’s war goes on – in some places now, and soon everywhere
Seeing the elephant
There were great numbers of young men who had never been in a war and were consequently far from unwilling…
