The objects that sound witchiest on paper just look sad: Spellbound reviewed
Just in front of me, visiting Spellbound at the Ashmolean last week, was a very rational boy of about seven…
Yes, we London cyclists really are a nasty lot
One morning a long time ago, when the Spectator offices were still in Bloomsbury, I hopped my bike up onto…
It’s time to take on the paedophiles
Abusing children is one of the most terrible things men do. We all agree about that. And I think we’re…
Why dismiss a Catholic priest for being Catholic?
They’re just kids! What’s your problem? This has become the default reaction of a whole raft of clever people to…
Why do so many women feel such a strong urge to paint?
Why do so many women feel such a strong urge to paint? It has been troubling me for years now.…
Antony Gormley’s art works better in theory than in practice
Antony Gormley has replicated again. Every year or so a new army of his other selves — cast, or these…
Is it ok for Muslim parents to stop their kids having non-Muslim pals?
Is it all right for the Muslim parents of children at British state schools to prevent their sons and daughters…
After decades in London, I still long for home. Is that too Brexity?
As I get older, and particularly after having a child, I feel myself unexpectedly drawn back to the countryside I…
An odd new feeling has crept up on me – sympathy for the police
Spring has come to my local park in its usual way. First the magnolias, then the cherry blossom, then the…
Has Virgin trains lost the plot?
Twelve minutes till the train. That had seemed like quite enough time as I approached the Virgin ticket machine. Two…
Commitment-phobic men are the real reason women are having children later
We are becoming a nation of older mothers. The average age at which a woman has her first child is…
Why we keep ignoring NGO sex scandals
One of the oddest things about the Oxfam sex scandal is how little we all seem to care. Even now,…
UN ‘Peace-keepers’ abuse the girls in their care, yet no one is ever punished
Last week, women working for the UN became the latest to join the #MeToo gang, and for all the eye-rolling…
For some girls, therapy does more harm than good
In the churchyard by the church near my grandmother’s house, there’s a tombstone with an inscription that’s haunted me since…
How can any intelligent person have faith?
Ten years ago, I had a strange debate about faith with a famous Jesuit and an agnostic psychoanalyst in a…
An exceptional new film about Jane Goodall unearths a remarkable love story
There are times when our national passion for cutting people down to size is a little tiring. I left Brett…
The iciness behind the heart of the #metoo movement
On rolls the Harvey Weinstein horror show with no finale in sight. The next episode looks likely to star Uma…
The universal credit crunch
It only dawned on me in late summer just how terrible our new benefits system, universal credit, might be both…
Calling Paddock a ‘lone wolf’ isn’t racist
It’s been nearly two weeks since Stephen Paddock committed mass murder in Las Vegas and the FBI is still casting…
Savage beauty
Could it, at times, be frustrating to have taken one of the world’s most famous photographs? Steve McCurry’s ‘Afghan Girl’…
Gentrification is far from our biggest problem
The late afternoon sun fell on the anomalous pine trees of Gillett Square, London N16, and on the wooden decking…
Oh brave new gender-fluid world…
Later this year, the Advertising Standards Authority will reveal to the world their list of rules designed to wipe out…
The end of brotherly love
You can never completely leave a religious cult, as this strange and touching memoir demonstrates. Patterns of thinking, turns of…
Beware the back-cracker quacks of Harley Street
All along Harley Street, charlatans and medical experts have set up side by side with no obvious way to tell…
The strange case of my first love and the stolen Stradivarius
Because I’d been reading about Stradivarius on the bus home, my helpful iPhone suggested a related story: the Totenberg Ames…
