Features
Puttshack has ruined crazy golf
It is a great family disappointment that I could never get into golf. My late grandfather would become so engrossed…
I didn’t want to like Rod Liddle
One of the joys of being director of digital at The Spectator, back in 2015, was seeing the magazine proofs…
‘The Middlesbrough Shakespeare’: Why I loved Rod
I met Rod 22 years ago this month. We had been selected as team-mates on a gameshow pilot, and, halfway…
Rod had one great regret
In 2019 I had to explain to Iain Dale – live on LBC – that Rod Liddle’s suggestion in his…
‘I asked for a substitute for the f-word. He suggested the c-word’: the joy of editing Rod
It was in Westminster Magistrates’ Court, where I was sitting waiting for the judge’s verdict, that I decided I needed…
Good riddance, Rod
When a famous right-wing, straight white male dies, if your first instinct isn’t to gloat and trash his reputation then…
Rod’s genius? Driving his enemies nuts
There is a reason the death of Rod Liddle has provoked such a swirling tide of grief among his millions…
To be a Spectator reader was to love Rod
Since becoming Spectator editor there was one observation I heard more often from readers than any other: ‘Rod is the…
The fantastical truth about Jason Arday
The story of Jason Arday is so brilliantly illuminating of the rottenness of our Establishment that it seems – literally…
Love lessons from my grandfather, Alexander Chancellor
After a lovely 25th birthday trip to Vienna, I returned home to face the reality of my quarter-life circumstances. I…
The great hay shortage
For the connoisseur, pushing your nose into a bale of new-season hay is one of life’s small but glorious pleasures.…
Never sue!
Don’t ever sue anyone! That’s what I would have told Prince Harry, Elton John and their fellow claimants, on the…
Schools out: the dissolution of private education
St Joseph’s College in Reading survived two world wars, the Great Depression and a pandemic. But it could not weather…
The curious history of sporting superstitions
My father had been waiting his entire life for that whistle. After 75 years, the curse was over. Mayo were…
‘He’s either the Messiah – or the Antichrist’: on the campaign trail with Nigel Farage
‘We love you, Nigel!’ In Clacton-on-Sea, there is little sign that the Reform leader’s star has waned. Campaigning with Farage…
We have a true book-loving Queen – and she is a marvel
Shepherd Market, W1, has many ghosts, some of whom are literary. In the shadow of Patrick Leigh Fermor’s former digs…
The grim rise of the ‘death positivity’ movement
It was the day after The Spectator’s summer party and I was on my way to something called a death…
The unspoken truth about wildfires
Bordeaux and Madrid are threatened by flames. In Sicily, arsonists tied burning rags to the tails of cats to spread…
Andy Burnham cannot solve Labour’s Gaza problem
Prime Ministers usually wait until they have been in office a little while before issuing apologies. Andy Burnham made one…
Make the Royal Navy great again
It’s all very well for Andy Burnham and John Healey to say they want to fund defence, but are they…
There’s no excuse for a plastic plant
Monstera deliciosa, otherwise known as the Swiss cheese plant, is perhaps the most popular houseplant of them all, probably because…
Are you a party bore?
Some years ago, I managed to get an invitation to a very exclusive party. One of the guests was Prince…
The radical left-wing takeover of the Democrats is nearly complete
Tuesday 4 August could prove to be a turning point in American political history. If Democratic primary voters in Michigan…
Not all boorish or lecherous behaviour is sexual assault
In the late 1990s, the rules for unwanted advances in a nightclub were clear. The first line of defence was…
Andy Burnham’s centrist act isn’t fooling anyone
When Ed Miliband and Shabana Mahmood arrived in Downing Street on Monday afternoon, the image of political rivals arm in…
