The Spectator
Australia
Stabbings in Sydney
Last Saturday afternoon Sydneysiders in particular and Australians as a whole were horrified and traumatised as a lone man prowled…
Australian Features
Brown study
Like many conservatives, I am profoundly unhappy about the appointment of Ms Sam Mostyn as Governor-General of Australia. In fact,…
Into the lion’s den
Justice Lee has just put an end to the old-fashioned date night
Alas for free trade
Conflict, going green and a returned Trump threaten global commerce.
Features
Why Mummy smokes
It’s 7.02 p.m. and I’m standing outside my house by the bins smoking a fag. Upstairs, I can hear that…
My night with Youth Demand
‘Won’t you take me to… Funkytown!’ At around 10 p.m., in a bar under a railway arch in south London,…
Inside the new Arab-Israeli alliance
As Jordanian fighter jets shot down Iranian drones heading for Israel on Saturday night, there were joyful cries of Allahu…
Why does the West protect Israel but not Ukraine?
When Israel and its allies shot down hundreds of Iranian drones and missiles, they demonstrated what an effective air defence…
Confessions of a defecting Starmtrooper
Next month, Keir Starmer is expected to lead his party to victory in the local elections. The Tories are forecast…
The Lebanese always return home
Beirut You might have thought that the threat of the Gaza war spiralling into an all-out regional conflagration, along with…
The dangers of political prosecution
At the start of January, Donald Trump offered up a cheery new year message for Americans. ‘If I don’t get…
Kippers could save your life
I miss kippers. My wife won’t let me eat them at home, and they have become a rarity in restaurants.…
The Week
What was it like to be noveau riche in Pompeii?
Frescoes are always the lead story in reports of the latest finds from Pompeii, but they are only a part…
I always judge a hotel by its club sandwich
As a child I was fascinated by the exotic names of certain cities: Havana, Rio de Janeiro and Los Angeles…
Portrait of the Week: the war on smoking, Trump’s trial and O.J.’s death
Home Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, said that British fighter jets had shot down ‘a number of drones’ fired at…
A smoking ban is pointless and illiberal
Why is Britain poised to ban cigarette smoking, when the habit is already dying out anyway? Smoking is seen by…
The Spectator’s letters page is hazardous
Question time Sir: Your leading article ‘Sense prevails’ (13 April) is a valuable précis of the Cass Review into NHS…
Columnists
The triumph of Katharine Birbalsingh
There are two questions that need to be asked of any society: what is it that is going wrong; and…
Are Stonewall and Mermaids charitable?
Iwas once asked by a colleague to sponsor him on an undertaking designed, he said, to raise money for a…
My letter from Chris Packham
I do not know Chris Packham, the BBC nature broadcaster, personally, but he wrote me a letter last month, enclosing…
Trump has stolen a march on Biden
The Democrats dare to hope that this week will be a study in contrasts. On their side stands President Joe…
Sack Andrew Bailey? Let’s look at the case against him
The Governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, is a loyal and well-intentioned public servant in a role that,…
Books
To Salman Rushdie, a dream before his attempted murder ‘felt like a premonition’
Though premonitions are not things he believes in, Rushdie notes the many spooky coincidences surrounding the attack – which he describes in gripping, terrifying detail
Murder in the dark: The Eighth House, by Linda Segtnan, reviewed
Motherhood prompts Segtnan to research the cold case of Birgitta Sivander, a nine-year-old found murdered in a Swedish forest in 1948
Are we all becoming hermits now?
A new anthropological type is emerging, says Pascal Bruckner – the shrivelled, hyperconnected being who no longer needs others or the outside world
John Deakin: the perfect anti-hero of the tawdry Soho scene
The photographer never attempted to show anyone in a good light, making his portraits of Francis Bacon and other Soho habitués look like dress rehearsals for morgue shots
A magnificent set of dentures still leaves little to smile about
After undergoing prolonged cosmetic dentistry, 50-year-old John Patrick Higgins reluctantly acknowledges that he’ll never be the stylish man about town of his dreams
The Dreyfus Affair continues to haunt France to this day
Inspired by the likes of Éric Zemmour, the extreme right is not only reviving reactionary ideas but even questioning the innocence of Captain Dreyfus himself
They felt they could achieve anything together: two brave women in war-torn Serbia
Vera Holme and Evelina Haverfield, lovers and fellow suffragettes, risked their lives as nursing staff in the first world war and exposed the absurdity of Edwardian homophobia
Being a printer was what Benjamin Franklin prided himself on most
Having learnt the trade as a child in London, the polymath established a thriving printing business in Philadelphia, bringing humour and enlightenment to the American millions
Grotesque vignettes: The Body in the Mobile Library and Other Stories, by Peter Bradshaw, reviewed
Relishing the outrageous and improbable, Bradshaw treats us to stories that often rely more on twist than plot
Arts
The music of their eloquence
It was a tweet by the novelist Joyce Carol Oates that warned us PBS, the American public broadcaster, had done…
Entirely pointless and extremely pleasant: House Flipper 2 reviewed
Grade: B+ Most video games challenge the player’s problem-solving skills, reaction time or hand-eye co-ordination. But a handful of them…
Player Kings proves that Shakespeare can be funny
Play-goers, beware. Director Robert Icke is back in town, and that means a turgid four-hour revival of a heavyweight classic…
How flabby our ideas of draughtsmanship have become
The term drawing is a broad umbrella, so in an exhibition of 120 works it helps to outline some distinctions.…
Baffling and vile: ETO’s Manon Lescaut reviewed
In 1937, John Barbirolli took six pieces by Henry Purcell and arranged them for an orchestra of strings, horns and…
Should beautiful actors be allowed to play those with plain faces?
Sometimes I Think About Dying is one of those titles you want to shout back at – what? Only sometimes?…
Danny Dyer’s new C4 programme is deeply odd
Who do you think said the following on TV this week: ‘I love being around gay men – seeing a…
Why garage punk is plainly the apogee of human achievement
How is it that a group that sounds like the Hives are selling out the Apollo? In a world configured…
We have lost an unforgettable teacher and one of the greatest living critics
Tanner, the critic RICHARD BRATBY Michael Tanner (1935-2024), who died earlier this month, had such a vital mind and stood…
Life
Kiwi life
Softly, softly, catchee monkey – the alphabet community’s grab for our children Somewhat naively, a New Zealand commentator thinks there’s…
Language
The University of Chicago has what it calls a ‘Parrhesia Program for Public Discourse’ – aimed at teaching students to…
How Linzer torte stood the test of time
Linzer torte has quite the claim to fame: some assert that it’s the oldest cake in the world; others that…
‘Five stars, no notes’: Arlington reviewed
Arlington is named for the 1st Earl of Arlington and his street behind the Ritz Hotel. It used to be…
My (surprisingly) decent proposal
‘Like being chained to a lunatic.’ That’s how a man feels in relation to his libido. And the lunatic latches…
Manchester City are surely unstoppable
Well it was fun while it lasted, the closest three-way race for the Premier League in history, a title challenge…
Lefties don’t know anything about farming
The artists and hippies are re-wilding their land, which is to say doing nothing at all to it and watching…
Amol Rajan is right to change his ways on ‘aitch’
My husband thought it brave and manly of the BBC’s Amol Rajan to resolve publicly to change his pronunciation of…
Even Orwell’s Thought Police didn’t go as far as Trudeau
You’d assume the reaction to the SNP’s new hate crime laws would make other authoritarian governments hesitate before introducing similar…
The magic of Aintree
However hard some people try to make it a business, jump racing remains a sport and the Grand National its…
Dear Mary: How do I choose who to sponsor for the London Marathon?
Q. For the past couple of years, many of my sons’ friends have been gamely running the London Marathon for…