Features
Welcome to the age of the digital inquisition
A friend of mine at university had a rule: he didn’t want anything to appear online that might ruin a…
Building artificial beauty spots to protect nests is a bird-brained idea
While walking or riding on the beautiful heathland near my home, I have noticed a growing number of signs telling…
Girl power! Educating girls can fix the world’s problems
The world is blessed with a brilliant and industrious UN secretary-general, and it was certainly worth tuning in last week…
For Putin, the World Cup is not about football but global respect
Authoritarian regimes love grand international sporting events. There’s something about the mass regimentation, the set-piece spectacle, the old-fashioned idea of…
Patients like being told they need an operation. It doesn’t mean they do
In George Bernard Shaw’s play The Doctor’s Dilemma, written early last century, the knife-happy surgeon invents a nut-shaped abdominal organ,…
Britain’s real-life canals are as mystical and marvellous as Philip Pullman’s books
Philip Pullman’s latest missal, La Belle Sauvage, once again features the boat-dwelling Gyptians. Rough and honourable, they emerge from the…
The Iranian rebellion the world wants to ignore
If there is one lesson the world should have learned from Iran’s ‘Green Revolution’ of 2009 and the so-called Arab…
Wilfred Owen’s troubling obsession with young boys
This year is the centenary of the Armistice to end what Siegfried Sassoon called ‘the world’s worst wound’: the first…
Europe’s biggest Brexit fear? That we’ll flourish outside the EU
What do Europeans really think about Brexit? Do they secretly admire our unexpected decision to walk away from all those…
Compulsory subtitles? I read ‘em and weep
Subtitles are taking over the world. It’s increasingly rare these days for a video clip to be free of those…
“I’ll eat you alive” – Angela Rayner interview
Angela Rayner is perhaps the only Labour MP who works with a picture of Theresa May hanging above her desk.…
The slow death of the public-sector pension
Hedge funds have already spotted it: Jim Mellon’s latest book, Juvenescence, reviews the new science that will lengthen our lives…
Taipei is obsessed with food… and it’s so cheap you can try everything
The Taiwanese seem besotted with food. The National Palace Museum in Taipei has almost 700,000 objects in its collection, but…
El Salvador and Honduras: Fabulous scenery, colourful murals and smiling hospitality
Roberto the guide had promised us the most spectacular church in Central America — so why had he brought us…
Exploring the hippo highway and a watery wilderness in Botswana
There is a distinct nip in the air as I slide quietly from the riverbank into the water. November may…
The wild and wintry wonders of Lapland
As Sini harnessed up the huskies they were all yelping with excitement, but once we set off and the forest…
Spending 23 hours in economy class will cure anyone’s wanderlust
For some reason, I decided to go to the other side of the world for Christmas. I may never do…
Brexit suggests we’re on the right side of history
How nice it would be, in this season of good cheer, to find something hopeful to say. Being a historian,…
New world order
Old establishment New establishment Order of the Garter BBC Sports Personality of the Year Parliament’s Woolsack The Supreme Court…
How I’d sex down the weather forecast
I have, for utterly explicable reasons, not been asked to guest-edit Radio 4’s Today this Christmas. Had I, though, I would…
For Ronnie Wood, every picture tells a story
I am in Paris for the Rolling Stones’ No Filter concert, in Ronnie Wood’s dressing room minutes before he is…
Are driverless cars really the future?
Philip Hammond’s last Budget focused on driverless cars as an example of the brave new technological world. But should we…
Mission impossible? The C of E’s attempt to woo new members
If you work for the Church of England in any capacity, from Archbishop of Canterbury to parish flower-arranger, how do…
How to date without getting sued: Dear Mary’s modern guide
For the young heterosexual Spectator male, the dating world is beset with perplexities. It was all so different in his…
I’m teaching my kids about money – by searching for buried treasure
At the end of each year I pull out most of the New Year’s resolutions I’ve ever made — I…
