Albania

Lord Byron had many faults, but writing dull letters wasn’t one of them

17 February 2024 9:00 am

Andrew Stauffer traces the poet’s tumultuous life through some of the most remarkable missives in the English language

Do all MI6 men wear such quirky cufflinks?

19 August 2023 9:00 am

‘You’re late. About four years too late.’ The lady in the car-hire office gave a casual shrug and turned her…

The rotten legacy of communism in Albania

12 December 2020 9:00 am

Our heavily laden taxi turned off the main highway from Tirana and started to negotiate the rough, one-track road. The…

Why I wanted to be called C.H. Moore

6 October 2018 9:00 am

There are, one must admit, things to be said against Boris Johnson, but his leading critics do not understand that…

Real life

28 October 2017 9:00 am

The Albanian builders have started a turf war in my kitchen. The hostilities broke out suddenly. One minute the builders…

A Girl in Exile: Ismail Kadare’s novel is full of absence

26 March 2016 9:00 am

My last review for The Spectator was of Julian Barnes’s biographical novel about Shostakovitch. A Girl in Exile also depicts…

Sorry, but I can’t join in the China panic (especially not while I’m on a cruise)

29 August 2015 9:00 am

 MS Queen Victoria, 38°N 19°E I’ll do my best, but I’ve got to be honest: being surrounded by shining Ionian…

I don’t think it’s over in the Balkans

24 August 2013 9:00 am

I returned last week from a short break in the Balkans; travelling by train in Serbia, walking from village to…