The Spectator
Australia
A King’s welcome
This magazine supports our constitutional monarchy and thus naturally delights in the spectacle of the coronation. Our constitutional monarchy, the…
Australian Columnists
Brown study
Here at the Melbourne Comedy Festival, it’s all go, go, go! We had scarcely finished this year’s festival when we…
Australian Features
Don’t mention the… detainees
Labor premiers refuse to raise serious human rights concerns with Beijing
Features Australia, New Zealand
What is a woman? Don’t ask!
New Zealand’s PM apparently doesn’t know
Features
I demand reparations for my ancestors’ fall from grace
I demand reparations for my ancestors’ fall from grace
‘We may be history’: Geoffrey Hinton on the dangers of AI
Geoffrey Hinton, the ‘godfather of AI’, on the dangers that lie ahead
Vials of ammonia, shaky scaffolding and sword fights: memories of Elizabeth II’s coronation
Memories of Elizabeth II’s coronation — from those who took part
The Week
How the coronation will celebrate multifaith Britain
What the world will see when Charles III is crowned is not just the rare spectacle of a monarchy that…
Columnists
Sue Gray, Simon Case and a tale of two appointments
When Boris Johnson appointed Simon Case to the Cabinet Office, he believed that the youngest cabinet secretary in a century…
What King Charles gets wrong
Marooned in London for a day between meetings, I walked for miles in an attempt to find something good to…
The cost of mass migration
Way back in the long distant 1990s, net migration into this country used to be in the tens of thousands…
On looking without seeing
Guadix is a windy, dusty town on the slopes of the dry side of the massive ridge that is the…
I’m a sucker for Tucker Carlson
I was asked on Tucker Carlson Tonight only once, while in New York about two years ago, and I turned…
Books
The language of love: Greek Lessons, by Han Kang, reviewed
Lessons in ancient Greek for a young Korean poet who has lost her power of speech develop into a touching relationship with her half-blind teacher
Into the woods of 19th-century America
The pressing need for timber in the 1830s led to tree-felling on vast scale – and the displacement of countless Native Americans as a result
Milan Kundera feels the unbearable weight of disappointment
In two essays, from 1967 and 1983, he expresses the sense of abandonment felt in Central Europe – and his own dismay at the superficiality of western culture
Adolescent angst
A violent adolescent breaks out of his ‘Last Chance’ reform home at dead of night – but can he ever escape his inner turmoil?
The sadness of Britain’s seaside resorts
Their decline began with the arrival of package holidays in the 1960s – and new schemes for their revival seem already to have backfired
Daniel Chandler aims to bring new values to British politics – so how will that work out?
Daniel Chandler claims to be a bringer of values, to fill the vacuum at the heart of British politics. Noel Malcolm is unconvinced
Arts
Dragons, broomsticks and whatnot
It was saddening to hear of the death of the poet John Tranter the other week. For those of us…
Despite the lack of sex, stick with it: Paramount Plus’s Fatal Attraction reviewed
With the current taste for remakes of erotic-thriller movies of the 1980s and ’90s, these are certainly good times for…
A phenomenally exciting new band: The Last Dinner Party, at Camden Assembly, reviewed
A user’s guide to how pop music works in the 21st century. Step one: you see a great new band.…
‘I have uncancelled myself’: David Starkey interviewed
David Starkey’s commentary on the Queen’s funeral on GB News was generally agreed to be the best of all the…
Discover who wrote the catchy music for the coronation of the cannibal Emperor Bokassa
If being asked to write music for the coronation of a king is an honour, then doing it for an…
The magic is missing in this remake: Disney’s Peter Pan & Wendy reviewed
Peter Pan & Wendy is Disney’s latest live-action remake (the animated version was in 1953) and it’s quite the sombre…
Upstart Crow without the jokes: RSC’s Hamnet, at the Swan Theatre, reviewed
The Swan Theatre has reopened after an overhaul and praise god: they’ve replaced the seats. The Swan is a likeable…
So good it would have made Ibsen envious: Dixon and Daughters, at the Dorfman Theatre, reviewed
Dixon and Daughters is a family drama that opens on a note of sour mistrust. We’re in a working-class home…
From Bayeux to Cartier-Bresson: how artists have brought the coronation crowds to life
Dan Hitchens on the art that has shaped our image of the coronation
Life
Aussie life
The Melbourne Comedy Festival’s continuing refusal to apologise for not closing this year’s festival with a tribute to its co-founder…
Language
The word ‘gender’ has been part of the English language since at least 1390. It appears to have started at…
The joy of real beer
England. Despite being a Scotsman, partly brought up in Ulster, I have taken so much Englishness for granted over so…
The case against koalas
There was a reason 18th-century rulers were eager for their subjects to grow and eat potatoes: the miraculous tuber offered…
I’ve ridden my last rollercoaster
I was in Canada last week, travelling across British Columbia on a luxury train called the Rocky Mountaineer. It was…
Kitty’s Light is the horse of the year
John Trotwood Moore, one-time State Librarian of Tennessee, was a racist and defender of the Ku Klux Klan. But in…
The pros and cons of kissing
Marketa stands on one side of me, Catriona on the other. Marketa is Czech and my carer. Catriona is my…
