As a nation of voyeurs, we don’t cook but watch TV cookery programmes instead
When I got married 50 years ago, my wife and I had somehow acquired a little cookery book called Cooking…
Our first kills of spring
The arrival of spring is not an unmitigated joy. The warmth is nice, of course, as are the fresh leaves…
Compassion is fashionable again. Thank the Pope
There was something poignant about the decision of L’Wren Scott, Mick Jagger’s American girlfriend, who committed suicide in New York…
America's crazy war on old pianos
More than 20 years ago, when I was living in New York, I wrote an article about the mutilation by…
I'll have to give up Waitrose. It's too exciting for me now
Waitrose in Towcester has closed down for a week to make what it describes as ‘a final few touches’ to…
It's sheer madness for Cameron to resurrect the hunting issue
My house in south Northamptonshire looks out over parkland on which Henry VIII used to hunt deer with Anne Boleyn.…
I want to age like the Three Tenors
In February each year the Oldie magazine gives ‘Oldie of the Year Awards’ to people who show unusual vigour and…
Dear Bill de Blasio: there are better reasons to boycott the St Patrick's Day parade
The new mayor of New York, who despite his name (Bill de Blasio) claims Irish ancestry, is boycotting this month’s…
I was forced on to the internet in the 1980s. I still don't belong there
With regard to modern technology, I find that people of around my age — by which I mean people in…
Was Graham Greene right about Shirley Temple?
Shirley Temple, who died last week at the age of 85, was the most successful child film star in history.…
In praise of Milton Keynes
Who would ever have thought it, but I have become quite fond of Milton Keynes. Although I live slightly closer…
Local protests don't stop windfarms. Subsidy cuts do
Here in the valley of the River Tove in south Northamptonshire my chickens are laying copiously, my ducks are quacking…
Why I get my health advice from the Daily Mail
When one is in one’s seventies, as I am, one begins to fear the horror of dementia and to carry…
If America can't put a person to death painlessly, it should stop executions altogether
I have never supported the death penalty. Maybe I was influenced when I was six or seven years old by…
Forget the sex scandal. Why does Francois Hollande have only one pair of shoes?
Of all the interesting revelations by the French magazine Closer about François Hollande, the most interesting for me is its…
Alexander Chancellor: The Chinese must save the cigar from extinction
In Dorchester during the Christmas holiday I bought a two-slice electric toaster at Currys. It was a nice little toaster…
Alexander Chancellor: I think my doctors are trying to frighten me
The date of this issue of The Spectator is 4 January 2014, which also happens to be my 74th birthday.…
Alexander Chancellor: This Christmas it’s nice to be able to pity the stinking rich for a change
This is the season of goodwill when one should think about people less fortunate than oneself and wish them better…
Remembering the journalist John Thompson, who turned down the editorship of The Spectator
John Thompson, who died last week at the age of 93, could have been editor of The Spectator if he…
Alexander Chancellor: A slice of Italy in Milton Keynes
Back home from a week in Italy, I almost feel that I haven’t left. For I go almost at once…
Alexander Chancellor: What Pope Francis and Silvio Berlusconi have in common
It’s filthy wet weather in Tuscany, so I’m lying on my bed in the afternoon reading through the Italian newspapers.…
Alexander Chancellor: Can one be addicted to making emergency calls?
The police have been complaining a lot lately about frivolous calls to the emergency services. All over the country people…
Is Northamptonshire not scenic enough to visit?
I don’t know whether Bruce Bailey, a proud Northamptonshire man, agrees with the late Sir Nikolaus Pevsner that no one…
Alexander Chancellor: Do you think you should read this piece for free?
I was in Nottingham last Sunday to address university students about journalism. The occasion was a one-day ‘media conference’ organised…
A dog mess or two is not too high a price to pay for an owner’s happiness
A month ago I was reporting complacently that peace and calm had returned to Stoke Park after a series of…
