An ode to lamplighting
I was growing impatient with a recent blog by Sam Altman, who runs OpenAI, promising progress, universal prosperity, ‘a space…
A connoisseur’s guide to collecting matchboxes
We’d been told it would be a ‘brat’ summer, characterised by its inventor, the singer Charli XCX, as ‘a pack…
The fight to save an ancient City synagogue from developers
There was a little number, 223, pasted onto the back of one of the centuries-old wooden seats in Bevis Marks…
The Spectator’s 2023 Christmas quiz
Fairly odd 1. What had for 50 years been the name for Fanta Pineapple & Grapefruit before it was changed…
How to speak London
Cockney is dead, but so is the King’s English. Long live Standard Southern British English. The Cockney Barbara Windsor yelling…
The surprising beauty of Mass in a burnt-out church
The surprising beauty of Mass in a burnt-out church
The mysterious world of British folk costume
Christopher Howse on the transformative power of folk costume
Handel’s Messiah is as much a Christmas tradition as pantomime
Handel’s Messiah is as much a Christmas tradition as pantomime
The Spectator’s 2022 Christmas quiz
Verbals In 2022, who said: 1. Them’s the breaks. 2. I know that we will deliver, we will deliver, we…
What your signature says about you
I have a photograph of Queen Elizabeth II and her parents on the wall of my bathroom, not out of…
What I’ve learnt from editing a newspaper letters page
The joys of editing a newspaper letters page
Should have been even longer with less gore: The Northman reviewed
In Rus, which we now call Ukraine, Amleth (Alexander Skarsgard) begins his pursuit of revenge. A sea captain who later…
Why the destruction of Ukraine’s churches matters
The destruction of Ukraine’s churches
Stupendous: The World of Stonehenge at the British Museum reviewed
Christopher Howse is bowled over by the astonishingartefacts in the British Museum’s Stonehenge exhibition
The tiny charity that saves derelict churches from destruction
The tiny charity that saves derelict churches from destruction
2021 Christmas quiz
Set by Christopher Howse. Illustrated by Castro
The deafening rise of ‘background’ music
The unstoppable rise of ‘background’ music
Devil of a job: the curious occupations recorded in the census
Even before the first census was made in 1801, the plan was regarded with fear, hatred and ridicule. And this…
God’s many mansions: a guide to the world’s greatest churches
The surroundings of the Crimea Memorial Church in Istanbul are ‘little better than a dump’, wrote the British embassy chaplain…
2020 Christmas quiz
Set by Christopher Howse. Illustrated by Castro
Who decides what’s allowed on a gravestone?
A parishioner in West Yorkshire has been allowed to put an inscription in Chinese on a relative’s gravestone. ‘There is…
The art of street furniture
On his lockdown rambles, Christopher Howse finds beauty and solace in London’s street furniture
Why beards of convenience are a bad idea
Viewers of the BBC News channel, now that Zoom shows talking heads in their own homes, want before anything to…
