England
Emma Thompson’s wrong about the EU and cake
At first glance, Emma Thompson’s intervention in the Brexit debate earlier this week didn’t make much sense. Asked at the…
The shocking truth about the English and the Scots: they agree
Last year, the United Kingdom came within 384,000 votes of destruction. A referendum designed to crush the Scottish nationalists instead…
Wrestling with the romantic glory of the Lake District
Cumberland and Westmorland Wrestling is the best thing in the Lake District. I lived near Wigton, just north of the…
Jeremy Corbyn isn’t like Caligula’s horse – he’s like Caligula
Jeremy Corbyn has been compared to plenty of people over the past few months — a geography teacher, Michael Foot,…
Tristram Hunt’s diary: The rainy glories of Devon – and a cold political climate
‘Devon, Devon, Devon/ Where it rains six days out of seven.’ Nothing beats a British seaside holiday. And north Devon…
Why nothing in sport beats thrashing the Aussies at cricket
Why nothing in sport beats thrashing the Aussies at cricket
Prue Leith’s diary: When did weddings stop being for parents?
My Cambodian daughter and her husband have just got married again. Wedding One was a Buddhist affair in our drawing…
Would Betjeman recognise anything about today’s north Cornwall?
In a documentary filmed at the end of his life, Sir John Betjeman, who lived in the village of Trebetherick…
The pitfalls of picnics (and how to avoid them)
Strange, isn’t it, that despite having such famously terrible weather, we Brits are so fond of a picnic. It’s something…
Letters: Booming churches, brilliant Swedes and who gets the VC
Growing congregations Sir: I would like to take issue with Damian Thompson (‘Crisis of faith’, 13 June) and his assertions…
A piece of primeval England reborn in Sussex
A piece of ancient England is being reborn around a castle in Sussex
Grayson Perry - heir to Lewis Caroll and William Blake
At the Turner Prize dinner of 2003, as the winner, Grayson Perry, took a photo call with his family wearing…
BBC2’s Armada has something for everybody - including three yummy female historians
It has been a while since the BBC really pushed the boat out on the epic history documentary front. Perhaps…
Scotland knows the power of a common enemy. We English don’t
When last Sunday Pope Francis took the brave step of acknowledging the Armenian tragedy as the ‘first genocide of the…
The myth of the housing crisis
The coalition is letting developers concrete over the countryside, but that won’t help young people buy houses
France, England and the tragedy of DSK
When we consider poets who perished before their day, thoughts turn to the Romantics or the war victims: Burns, Keats,…
It takes a village (or six): the battle for rural churches
Can England’s 10,000 rural churches survive?
My grandson's getting into the rugby: 'Which one's West Ham?'
My grandson and I had a lovely hour-long swim at the leisure centre. We had the learner pool to ourselves…
The sheer joy of hunting
This time three years ago, I hadn’t jumped a single thing for almost ten years. This season, I am happily…
Bruce Anderson’s diary: If you want to understand the SNP, it helps to be an ex-Trot
An embarrassing confession: in the late 1960s, I was a Trotskyite. But that period of political adolescence has its uses.…
Return of the fairy-hunters
An eccentric English tradition has attracted fresh academic attention
The birth of a barrel of cider
The fabulous October weather is now just a memory but it made for a golden, old-fashioned apple day down in…
Escape from Omnishambleshire: the case for the old county boundaries
If you want real local identity to thrive in England, put the old county boundaries back on the map
Spectator letters: In defence of the GMC and Ukip members, and how Rachmaninov spelled Rachmaninov
Nothing to fear Sir: So long as we are not breaking any law, we have nothing to fear from the…
I’ve spent years in war zones. And the most terrifying moment of my life just happened in Norfolk
I’ve spent years in conflict zones. But the scariest thing that’s happened to me involved two bull terriers on a Norfolk beach
