From The Archives

From the archive: the nature of Japan

6 November 2021 9:00 am

From ‘The rule of taste’, Anthony Thwaite, 6 March 1959: The society of aristocrats, connoisseurs, wise men and heroes which…

From the archive: With the Benedictines

5 September 2020 9:00 am

From 18 October 1946: Their whole aim and object is to exemplify in their lives and corporate activity their sense…

And end to decent dying

6 June 2020 9:00 am

From 22 March 1986: They used to say that war is the ruin of serious soldiering. Too much disorder, too…

Objects of desire

7 February 2020 10:00 pm

‘Homosexuality without the cant’, by Simon Raven, 14 June 1968: ‘All virile societies,’ writes Mary McCarthy à propos the Florentines,…

Mr Pooter goes to Europe

24 January 2020 10:00 pm

By Leo McKinstry, The Spectator, 17 August 2002: The modern MEP is a titan of tedium, a figure whose every…

A coalowner on coal

21 December 2019 9:00 am

From 16 June 1866: Mr Stanley Jevons, Mr Mill, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer are all agreed that there is…

Koo d’etat

30 November 2019 9:00 am

From 16 October 1982: Prince Andrew’s Caribbean holiday with Miss Koo Stark (following, perhaps prompted by, months of all-male company…

A paradise of postcards

19 October 2019 9:00 am

From The Spectator, 15 July 1922:   It is true that things so small as postcards cannot give one the…

The need for a poll of the people

3 August 2019 9:00 am

The Need For A Poll Of The People, 2 August 1919: ‘It is not to be wondered at that during…

A way with words

27 July 2019 9:00 am

From ‘Low talk’ by John Daniel, 19 July 1963: Everybody has heard of Dr Johnson’s dictionary, which is now not…

An absurd craze

13 July 2019 9:00 am

From ‘Keeping fat’ by Geoffrey Wheatcroft, 7 October 1978: The running craze is a symptom of our deplorable age, in…

How to fight Bolshevism

11 May 2019 9:00 am

From 10 May 1919: The heart of the country is always for moderation. Nothing could show this more plainly than…

Backing Mrs Thatcher

27 April 2019 9:00 am

From ‘Be brave’, 28 April 1979: We can think of a number of reasons why voters might feel reluctant to…

Israel and the UN

20 April 2019 9:00 am

From ‘Israel’s Candidature’, The Spectator, 22 April 1949: Israel’s application for UN membership received a chillier reception than had been…

Supreme but not respected

6 April 2019 9:00 am

From ‘The disconsideration of the House of Commons’, 5 April 1919: The House of Commons is legally supreme in the…

Kingsley Amis (Getty Images)

Kingsley Amis on Lolita: It’s not pornographic enough

9 March 2019 9:00 am

From ‘She was a child and I was a child’ by Kingsley Amis, 6 November 1959: The only success of…

On political tribalism

2 February 2019 9:00 am

From The Spectator, No. 152, 24 July 1711: There cannot a greater judgment befall a country than such a dreadful…

A model president

5 January 2019 9:00 am

From The Spectator, 4 January 1919: President Wilson arrived in London on Thursday week, and was greeted with full expression…

From the archive: the Spectator’s original verdicts on literary classics

15 December 2018 9:00 am

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë,  reviewed 18 December 1847 An attempt to give novelty and interest to fiction, by resorting…

Trial and punishment

17 November 2018 9:00 am

From ‘The Kaiser’, 16 November 1918: What is to be done with the Kaiser? For the question must certainly be…

Giving thanks

10 November 2018 9:00 am

From ‘Thanks be to God’, 16 November 1918: The thought that filled the mind of the nation on Monday, and…

The decisive moment

6 October 2018 9:00 am

From ‘News of the week’, 5 October 1918: The Western Front is now aflame from the sea to Verdun. This…

Allenby’s triumph

29 September 2018 9:00 am

From ‘The Eastern successes’, 28 September 1918: The glorious news from Palestine and Macedonia has exceeded all expectations. The annihilating…

Victory is nigh

4 August 2018 9:00 am

From ‘The fifth year of war’, 3 August 1918: There are those who think that Germany will try to regain…

Hitting home

28 July 2018 9:00 am

From ‘The munitions strike’, 27 July 1918: It is necessary for the Government to make it clear that the present…