Flat White

In-depth analysis of the day’s news, plus stories and gossip from Australian politics.

Scarred by the past

11 June 2016 8:00 am

In Indonesia in 1965–6 half a million communists and supposed communist sympathisers were murdered by a range of civilian and…

Edgehogs

11 June 2016 8:00 am

Last week, commenting on Nigel Davies’s new book The Pirc Move by Move (Everyman Chess), I wrote about my win…

One country, two worlds

11 June 2016 8:00 am

In October 1964, Charles de Gaulle visited Brazil. The country was six months into its military dictatorship. In April of…

Minus one

11 June 2016 8:00 am

In Competition No. 2951 you were invited to remove a letter from a well-known book title and submit an extract…

A terrible beauty

11 June 2016 8:00 am

It was only when I left Western Australia for university in England that I understood how vast and dangerous my…

To 2261: Long Jump

11 June 2016 8:00 am

Clifton Fadiman wrote that cheese was ‘MILK’S LEAP TOWARDS IMMORTALITY’ (3/4/18). The remaining unclued lights (16, 21, 25, 35, 44…

Love for sale

11 June 2016 8:00 am

The premise of Kat Banyard’s Pimp State is a familiar one: sex work — a phrase the author rejects as…

The Battle for Britain

11 June 2016 8:00 am

The post The Battle for Britain appeared first on The Spectator. Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment…

That glowing feeling

11 June 2016 8:00 am

On the morning of 15 October 1927, a dim, autumn day, a group of men foregathered at the Rosedale cemetery…

The pain of being second-best

11 June 2016 8:00 am

The boys at Radio 5, bless ’em, are now including the EU referendum as part of their sports trailers. As…

Tales of Mr Tod

11 June 2016 8:00 am

Have you ever considered tying a fox’s penis to your head? Well no, nor have I, but if you suffer…

Un-Italian job

11 June 2016 8:00 am

I have been waiting, like a heroine in fiction, for the specialist lasagne restaurant. London has long been heading this…

She’s the top

11 June 2016 8:00 am

This book is the latest in Yale’s series of Jewish Lives — though in this case Jewish Loves might be…

Lives of gay abandon

11 June 2016 8:00 am

Somewhere I have a couple of neat letters from the artist Richard Chopping, politely declining my requests to interview him…

Books & arts

11 June 2016 8:00 am

The post Books & arts appeared first on The Spectator. Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment below.

These foolish things

11 June 2016 8:00 am

No reliable statistics exist — it’s not the sort of thing you can audit — but England is surely the…

The lost world

11 June 2016 8:00 am

Every now and then, with great infrequency (alas), a film comes along that is like no other and completely knocks…

Boxing

11 June 2016 8:00 am

The post Boxing appeared first on The Spectator. Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment below.

Doing bird

11 June 2016 8:00 am

A decade ago, the French pianist and poly-math Pierre-Laurent Aimard announced that he was ‘very bored to live in a…

Sourced

11 June 2016 8:00 am

The post Sourced appeared first on The Spectator. Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment below.

No laughing matter

11 June 2016 8:00 am

Rossini is the meat-and-two-inappropriately-shaped-veg of summer opera; he’s the wag in the novelty bow tie, the two satyrs shagging enthusiastically…

Rolypoly

11 June 2016 8:00 am

The post Rolypoly appeared first on The Spectator. Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment below.

Profit and loss

11 June 2016 8:00 am

Bertolt Brecht took The Threepenny Opera  from an 18th-century script by John Gay and relocated it to Victorian London. This…

Prophet

11 June 2016 8:00 am

The post Prophet appeared first on The Spectator. Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment below.

Let’s talk about sex

11 June 2016 8:00 am

At one time, Damien Hirst was fond of remarking that art should deal with the Gauguin questions. Namely, ‘Where do…