A few good books
It is a truth universally acknowledged that whenever ITV or the BBC decides — the latter usually with charter renewal…
Smashing stuff
‘Joe lay in bed in his mother’s house. He thought about committing suicide. Such thinking was like a metronome for…
Cervantes the seer
William Egginton opens his book with a novelistic reimagining: here’s Miguel de Cervantes, a toothless old geezer of nearly 60,…
A dispatch from a family of fooshers
I’d like this to have been one of those Spectator diaries that gives the ordinary reader a glimpse into the…
Diary
I’d like this to have been one of those Spectator diaries that gives the ordinary reader a glimpse into the…
Why would the whole world’s book industry gather in booze-free Sharjah?
Who goes to the Sharjah International Book Fair? Sam Leith, for one
Worry less about what to call Isis, and more about how to fight them
We should worry less about what to call Isis, and more about how to fight them
Shakespeare's London: where all the world really was a stage
Sam Leith on the year 1606, when plague and panic were rife — and all the world really was a stage
A window on Chaucer’s cramped, scary, smelly world
Sam Leith describes the frequently lonely, squalid and hapless life of the father of English poetry
How Hitler's dreams came true in 1946
In 1946, in the aftermath of a devastating war, the world seemed a very dark place indeed, says Sam Leith
Corrie and ready-salted crisps: the years when modern Britain began
The only thing really swinging in early Sixties Britain, says Sam Leith, was the wrecking-ball
Soldier, poet, lover, spy: just the man to translate Proust
Sam Leith is astonished by how much the multi-talented Charles Scott Moncrieff achieved in his short lifetime
Why movie musicals matter – to this author anyway
Sam Leith finds much to like in a companion to musical films, and concludes that they matter very much – to the author anyway
A horse ride from Buenos Aires to New York? No problem!
Sam Leith marvels at a lone horseman’s 10,000-mile ride, braving bandits, quicksands, vampire bats and revolution in search of ‘variety’
If you ever wanted a Homeric jump-start, this is your book
Adam Nicolson plunges into Homer’s epic poetry and finds it inexhaustible. Sam Leith feels a touch of envy
Shooting prize-dispensing fish in literary barrels
Edward St Aubyn’s new novel is a jauntily malicious satire on literary prizes in general, the Man Booker Prize in…
Churchill was as mad as a badger. We should all be thankful
The egotistical Churchill may have viewed the second world war as pure theatre, but that was exactly what was needed at the time, says Sam Leith
Management consultancy! Sculpture park! Sports stadium! The many faces of the Delphic Oracle
Sam Leith finds the most sacred site of Ancient Greece still a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma
The Artist Formerly Known As Whistler
Sam Leith on the exasperating, charismatic painter who floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee
Reviewing reviews of reviews — where will it all end?
Sam Leith reviews the reviews of David Lodge — and wonders where it will all end
How honest was Bernard Berenson?
Sam Leith suspects that even such a distinguished connoisseur as Bernard Berenson did not always play a straight bat
Look! Shakespeare! Wow! George Eliot! Criminy! Jane Austen!
Among the precursors to this breezy little book are, in form, the likes of The Story of Art, Our Island…
England’s 100 best Views, by Simon Jenkins - review
Sam Leith is transported by the finest scenery in England
Signifying Rappers, by David Foster Wallace - review
Since his suicide, David Foster Wallace has made the transition from major writer to major industry. Hence this UK issue…
Danubia, by Simon Winder - review
The inbred Habsburg monarchs, who for centuries ruled without method over a vast, ramshackle empire, managed to leave an indelible mark on modern Europe, says Sam Leith
