From The Archives
From the archive: the nature of Japan
From ‘The rule of taste’, Anthony Thwaite, 6 March 1959: The society of aristocrats, connoisseurs, wise men and heroes which…
From the archive: With the Benedictines
From 18 October 1946: Their whole aim and object is to exemplify in their lives and corporate activity their sense…
And end to decent dying
From 22 March 1986: They used to say that war is the ruin of serious soldiering. Too much disorder, too…
Objects of desire
‘Homosexuality without the cant’, by Simon Raven, 14 June 1968: ‘All virile societies,’ writes Mary McCarthy à propos the Florentines,…
Mr Pooter goes to Europe
By Leo McKinstry, The Spectator, 17 August 2002: The modern MEP is a titan of tedium, a figure whose every…
A coalowner on coal
From 16 June 1866: Mr Stanley Jevons, Mr Mill, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer are all agreed that there is…
Koo d’etat
From 16 October 1982: Prince Andrew’s Caribbean holiday with Miss Koo Stark (following, perhaps prompted by, months of all-male company…
A paradise of postcards
From The Spectator, 15 July 1922: It is true that things so small as postcards cannot give one the…
The need for a poll of the people
The Need For A Poll Of The People, 2 August 1919: ‘It is not to be wondered at that during…
A way with words
From ‘Low talk’ by John Daniel, 19 July 1963: Everybody has heard of Dr Johnson’s dictionary, which is now not…
An absurd craze
From ‘Keeping fat’ by Geoffrey Wheatcroft, 7 October 1978: The running craze is a symptom of our deplorable age, in…
How to fight Bolshevism
From 10 May 1919: The heart of the country is always for moderation. Nothing could show this more plainly than…
Backing Mrs Thatcher
From ‘Be brave’, 28 April 1979: We can think of a number of reasons why voters might feel reluctant to…
Israel and the UN
From ‘Israel’s Candidature’, The Spectator, 22 April 1949: Israel’s application for UN membership received a chillier reception than had been…
Supreme but not respected
From ‘The disconsideration of the House of Commons’, 5 April 1919: The House of Commons is legally supreme in the…
Kingsley Amis on Lolita: It’s not pornographic enough
From ‘She was a child and I was a child’ by Kingsley Amis, 6 November 1959: The only success of…
On political tribalism
From The Spectator, No. 152, 24 July 1711: There cannot a greater judgment befall a country than such a dreadful…
A model president
From The Spectator, 4 January 1919: President Wilson arrived in London on Thursday week, and was greeted with full expression…
From the archive: the Spectator’s original verdicts on literary classics
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, reviewed 18 December 1847 An attempt to give novelty and interest to fiction, by resorting…
Trial and punishment
From ‘The Kaiser’, 16 November 1918: What is to be done with the Kaiser? For the question must certainly be…
Giving thanks
From ‘Thanks be to God’, 16 November 1918: The thought that filled the mind of the nation on Monday, and…
The decisive moment
From ‘News of the week’, 5 October 1918: The Western Front is now aflame from the sea to Verdun. This…
Allenby’s triumph
From ‘The Eastern successes’, 28 September 1918: The glorious news from Palestine and Macedonia has exceeded all expectations. The annihilating…
Victory is nigh
From ‘The fifth year of war’, 3 August 1918: There are those who think that Germany will try to regain…
Hitting home
From ‘The munitions strike’, 27 July 1918: It is necessary for the Government to make it clear that the present…