Books
'If I can barely speak, then I shall surely sing'
A few weeks ago, I was wandering with a friend around West London when our conversation turned to the reliable…
Clash of the titans
This is an odd book: interesting, informative, intelligent, but still decidedly odd. It is a history of the Victorian era…
Malala's voice is defiant — but how much can she change Pakistan?
In 2012 a Taleban gunman, infuriated by Malala Yousafzai’s frequent television appearances insisting that girls had a right to education,…
#Onyourmarks! What is the formal name for the hashtag?
One day there simply won’t be any strange byways of the English language left to write quirky little books about.…
Books and Arts
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Our valued Vatican envoy
In mid-2009, I landed in Italy for an extended break, as it happened, on the day of the L’Aquila earthquake.…
On your marks…
One day there simply won’t be any strange byways of the English language left to write quirky little books about.…
On your marks…
One day there simply won’t be any strange byways of the English language left to write quirky little books about.…
How to avoid bankers in your nativity scene
With an eye to the blasphemy underlying some of the loveliest Renaissance painting, Honor Clerk will be choosing her Christmas cards more carefully this year
A badger eats, squats, thieves. But should we cull them?
Lord Arran was responsible for the bill to legalise homosexuality and a bill to protect badgers from gassing and terrier-baiting.…
How to get old without getting boring
When one notices the first symptoms of senile dementia (forgetting names, trying to remember the purpose of moving from one…
The Rothschilds, the Spenders, the Queen...
The novelist David Plante is French-Québécois by ancestry, grew up in a remote Francophone parish in Yankee New England and…
After the war — apocalypse
On 12 April 1945 the Berlin Philharmonic gave its last performance. The atmosphere in Germany was apocalyptic, the Allied invasion…
Helen Fielding has lost her touch
To understand quite how disgruntled the reviews of the latest Bridget Jones diaries have been, you have to recall quite…
When 'drop-dead gorgeous' women actually dropped dead
No one watches Antiques Roadshow for the antiques. Instead we’re hanging on the punter’s reaction to his three-grand valuation. ‘It…
The Labour education secretary who could have been Britain's first woman PM
Decent, clever, charming, eloquent, hard-working, conscientious and terribly, terribly nice, Shirley Williams is one of Britain’s best-loved politicians. Mark Peel’s…
What makes someone the fastest man on earth?
What makes someone the fastest man on earth? The current tenant of the informal title held by such sporting icons…
Wild Tales: The book to make any Spectator reader weep
We all know that if you can remember the Sixties you weren’t really there. But Graham Nash, of the Hollies,…
'Bauklotzartigewortzusammensetzung'
Mark Twain had a notoriously thorny relationship with German, a language he gamely tried to conquer. His main beef was…
Is your dog enjoying more than physical exercise when you walk him?
Skip this book if you dislike dogs, or even if you are indifferent to them, or echo an acquaintance of…
What happens when journalists take sides
This is a curious book. Its title and the name of its publisher suggest that it is going to be…
Gower vs Boycott
Ask any England cricket fan in his fifties to name his favourite batsman and chances are he will say David…
Books and Arts
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The world according to Bob
Apparently, Ellis believes that the year 2011 was as important as 1848. He never explains why, exactly. He seems to…
Grace under pressure
Ask any England cricket fan in his fifties to name his favourite batsman and chances are he will say David…
