Features
What is the only London Underground station to share no letters with ‘mackerel’?
Don’t worry, this isn’t a piece about fishing quotas. It’s about the word ‘mackerel’ itself. Specifically, the fact that St…
Donald Trump has just blown up his goal of isolating Iran
A blood-red flag was raised over the Jamkaran mosque in the Iranian holy city of Qom last week, one normally…
Is there method – or madness – behind Trump’s actions in Iran?
Leaders are often accused of escalating a conflict abroad in order to distract from headaches at home. On Tuesday, before…
Revealed: Boris’s blueprint for Brexit
For the first time since the referendum, the United Kingdom has a strong government that knows what it wants from…
Fight fire with fire: controlled burning could have protected Australia
Sydney By modern standards, my grandfather would probably be considered an environmental criminal. To clear land for his farmhouse in…
In defence of pocket money
Our grandchildren are penniless. They have pretty much everything their hearts desire and they have parents with wallets full of…
Britain after Brexit: it’s time to decide on our place in the world
‘Global Britain’: a phrase that provokes mockery and even indignation. As an alternative to EU membership many consider it impossible…
Ben Schott: I’m Tony Blair’s brother (according to Google)
The globe (Golden and otherwise) has rightly fallen h-o-h for Olivia Colman who, before The Crown, The Favourite and Peep Show,…
My clash with Cameron
MPs have a standard approach to political biographies, which falls into three phases: first, preliminary gossip about what will or…
The faded charm of the Isle of Wight
I was worried my first trip to the Isle of Wight might be too late. These days, a holiday island…
Boris’s Britain: How the PM intends to deliver for his new friends in the North
The era of uncertainty has ended. Boris Johnson’s decisive victory has not only broken the Brexit deadlock created by Theresa…
Joan Collins: I’m an actress, not an actor. And yes, it matters
I recently tried to put my profession down as ‘actress’ on Instagram, but the only option available from the drop-down…
The best Christmas gift you can give yourself is to learn some poetry by heart
Every Christmas I find I am living in the past. I blame my father. He was born in 1910 —…
Comedy in the era of Twitter outrage: An interview with Ricky Gervais
There’s a moment in Ricky Gervais’s 2018 Netflix stand-up show Humanity when he talks about buying a first-class air ticket,…
Andrew Marr: Twitter fooled everyone during this election
It’s an unfashionable thought, but having spent many hours in the university sports hall where constituency votes for Boris Johnson…
Islam’s reformation: an Arab-Israeli alliance is taking shape in the Middle East
When Benjamin Netanyahu visited Oman in 2018 in a gesture of goodwill to Israel’s neighbours, the welcome was not universal.…
‘I aspire to write for posterity’: An interview with Tom Stoppard
Sir Tom Stoppard is Britain’s — perhaps the world’s — leading playwright. Born Tomas Straussler in Zlin, Czechoslovakia, in 1937,…
Corbyn’s problem was not that the media hated him – but that he hated the media
On the morning of the election, we buried my lovely mum. I write this 24 hours later, now on a…
This year, I’m performing all 32 of Beethoven’s sonatas. Here’s why
For the past several decades, little in my life as a professional pianist has been as constant as my relationship…
Words to live by from Saint John Henry Newman
On 13 October, John Henry Newman, a distinguished and distinctive Englishman, was officially declared a Saint. A well-known saying of…
‘I’ve had two totally successful marriages’: Stanley Johnson interviewed
If anything could make me feel sorry for Boris Johnson, it’s meeting his father, Stanley. Before we met, he sent…
What have you changed your mind about? A Spectator Christmas survey
Grayson Perry In 1992 I created a graphic novel called Cycle of Violence. Reading it now, the initially striking thing…
Lady Hale’s Christmas diary (as told to Quentin Letts)
They say I must retire next month when I turn 75. Irritating. I have been a member of the Supreme…
We’ve just had the best decade in human history. Seriously
Let nobody tell you that the second decade of the 21st century has been a bad time. We are living…
Roger Scruton: A year in which much was lost – but more gained
January My 2018 ended with a hate storm, in response to my appointment as chair of the government’s Building…
