Features
How Rory Stewart led me astray
I have just returned from a tour of Australia and New Zealand, on whose citizens I inflicted An Evening With…
‘The public sector is the illness’: Javier Milei on his first year in office
Buenos Aires ‘I never wind down,’ says Argentina’s President Javier Milei when we meet in his Presidential Office at the…
‘I will die protecting this country’: Kemi Badenoch on where she plans to take the Tories
‘It’s like a start-up,’ Kemi Badenoch explains of her new job, as she plumps down on a sofa in the…
A world without Jewish artists is a wasteland
It’s Christmas, and the far left have a gift for us in their stocking: a cultural boycott of Jews. They…
Stuff of legends: the surprising truth about old myths
I visited Mycenae for the first time this autumn. While the ruins of classical Athens can seem almost familiar, the…
A Spectator Christmas poll: Who is the most overrated painter?
Jonathan Meades This is a crowded field. A few years ago, I was delighted when Tracey Emin walked out of…
Don’t tell me to ‘unwind’!
The most irritating word of the year was ‘unwind’. ‘Unwind with one of our artisan cocktails in the curated ambience…
The prescient politics of Tintin
Georges Remi, better known as Hergé, the creator of Tintin, was a failed journalist. His first job after leaving school…
Notes from a national treasure
I’ve started rehearsals for the pantomime Beauty and the Beast at Richmond Theatre: two shows a day and just 13…
What I learned at Santa School
Whenever my son’s primary school ring up, they have, very sensibly, a calming form of words: ‘It’s the school here…
What The Spectator taught Benjamin Franklin
Christmas came early this year. No, I’m not moaning about the carols that my local café started piping at the…
The otherworldly artist who made his name at The Spectator
There is something otherworldly about Rory McEwen’s paintings of plants, leaves and fruit. They are indisputably beautiful, often breathtakingly so,…
Elon Musk is wrong about the Roman Empire
I was in Washington D.C. during The Election, living halfway between the Capitol and White House. Concerned friends suggested I…
I hope nobody watches Meet the Rees-Moggs
Towards the end of last year, the production company Optomen TV contacted Jacob about the possibility of filming a documentary series…
Demonia: a short story by Lawrence Osborne
They passed into the harbour of Favignana at the beginning of spring, the island’s single small mountain heaving into view…
The lure of the spy novel
Anniversaries. Back in mid-December 1998, 26 years ago to the month, we wrapped my first (and probably only) feature film…
The end of Christendom is nigh
If you are of a traditional turn of mind, you might well go to church this Christmas, sing the carols…
A Christian revival is under way
This is my second Christmas as a Christian. As an atheist, I had dismissed the bright lights and customs of…
A year to forget: good riddance to 2024
January. When the assisted dying bill comes in, I’ll be first in the queue. Non-stop nosebleeds, Covid-esque symptoms, leg cramps,…
How my father’s bedtime stories shaped my life
It’s half an hour before lights out when my dad arrives at my bedroom door holding Roald Dahl’s Danny the…
Christmas on patrol with the Royal Navy’s submariners
This Christmas, a Royal Navy Trident submarine will be quietly prowling the seas as part of the Continuous At Sea…
How pagan is Christmas?
Many people today feel an ambivalence towards the history of the Christmas festival. They sense that it has deep pre-Christian…
What carols owe to Martin Luther
It’s 500 years since Martin Luther, along with the preacher Paul Speratus, put together the first Protestant hymn book, the…
‘Judgment is the price of being creative’: Rory Sutherland and Rick Rubin in conversation
Rick Rubin is a legendary American record producer who co-founded Def Jam records, which helped popularise hip hop. He has…
How to turn eggnog into a superfood
Recently, scientists were baffled by the discovery that ice cream is a superfood. Yes, that’s right, people who eat ice…
