Family

Why no one ever moves back to London

31 August 2019 9:00 am

In last week’s Spectator, Martin Vander Weyer replied to a couple with a baby who had sought his advice on…

Cressida Bonas’s diary: Why do I find wedding hats so tricky?

26 May 2018 9:00 am

Monday morning. Sitting in Ed the physio’s waiting room. He is theatreland’s go-to man for fractured bones and torn muscles…

Dear Mary

5 August 2017 9:00 am

Q. I’m shortly to host a very large family gathering. Everyone will be related to the same ancestor, so we…

High Life

29 July 2017 9:00 am

Greece   I am surfing along the Cycladic islands on Puritan, a 125ft classic that was launched in 1929 by…

Permanent ink

26 November 2016 9:00 am

 Brooklyn Shall I have my sister’s skin peeled off for display after she dies? Specifically, the tattooed bits — the…

I used to back Jeremy Hunt’s digital NHS plan. Now I know it’s a disaster

7 May 2016 9:00 am

My baby and I excel at blood tests. He (tiny, jaundiced) stretches out naked under the hospital’s hot cot-lamps like…

Gentlest and sweetest of dogs

Beautiful, wilful, never dull: in praise of Clumber spaniels

7 May 2016 9:00 am

For the first time in more than 30 years we have no Clumber spaniel. We have had five: Henry, Judith,…

How baby names got so weird

23 April 2016 9:00 am

How Wolf and Skylar pushed out John and Mary

Strange fruit: Bosch mixes scripture and folklore

Want your children to love art? Start with Hieronymus Bosch

23 April 2016 9:00 am

If you hope to inspire an appreciation of Renaissance art in your children, look to Hieronymus Bosch. Ideally, your children…

The Archbishop of Canterbury and the shifting meaning of ‘illegitimate’

16 April 2016 9:00 am

‘The Archbishop of Canterbury has discovered he is the illegitimate son of Sir Winston Churchill’s last private secretary,’ Charles Moore…

A dispatch from a family of fooshers

2 April 2016 9:00 am

I’d like this to have been one of those Spectator diaries that gives the ordinary reader a glimpse into the…

What Hillary Clinton won’t find in Area 51

2 April 2016 9:00 am

Area of doubt Hillary Clinton has said that if she is elected she will open files on the US military…

Confessions of a Saga lout

2 April 2016 9:00 am

Baby boomers like me aren’t giving up irresponsible hedonism as we age. We’re just getting worse at it

The scan said my baby wouldn’t live. It was wrong

26 March 2016 9:00 am

When my unborn baby was a five-month-old fetus, twisting about in the internal dark, he was given a death sentence…

Let Evelyn Waugh back into Combe Florey churchyard

26 March 2016 9:00 am

My father, Evelyn Waugh, enjoyed pretending to be a horror. He wasn’t

How my disabled son has changed my mind about political correctness

19 March 2016 9:00 am

Here’s another stock joke for your collection: Pembroke College, Cambridge, has cancelled a fancy dress party themed on Around the…

Beware the baby-snatchers: how social services can ruin your family

6 February 2016 9:00 am

Why many mothers with post-natal depression now dread a visit from social services

Dear Mary: Must I have name badges for guests at my wedding?

6 February 2016 9:00 am

Q. My husband-to-be and I both work full time. We are getting married from his family HQ and his kind…

Where’s all the joy gone?

2 January 2016 9:00 am

Britain seems to be suffering from a dearth of lightheartedness

Will Father Christmas bring that drum kit?

Tips from Just William on making a Christmas list

5 December 2015 9:00 am

William Brown had the right idea about Christmas lists. Under the heading ‘Things I Want for Christmas’, he requests: a…

Ian Rankin’s diary: Paris, ignoring Twitter and understanding evil

21 November 2015 9:00 am

After ten days away, I spent last Friday at home alone, catching up on washing, shopping for cat food, answering…

Justin Trudeau and four more hereditary prime ministers

7 November 2015 9:00 am

Family business Justin Trudeau, son of Pierre Trudeau, was elected to his father’s old job as Prime Minister of Canada.…

We celebrated a birth with a wine that will last decades

7 November 2015 9:00 am

Good Saturday, 2015, stepping westward. Autumn sunshine: autumn leaves, almost comparable to New England: pumpkins everywhere, very New England. We…

One in ten British babies will soon be born via IVF. So why is it taboo?

10 October 2015 9:00 am

Pretty soon, one in ten British babies will begin life in a Petri dish. So why is it still such a taboo subject?

New mothers deserve something better than NCT classes

3 October 2015 8:00 am

Why women are seeking alternatives to NCT antenatal classes