Harold macmillan
How Britain was misled over Europe for 60 years
Just as one is inclined to believe Carlyle’s point that the history of the world is but the biography of…
General de Gaulle’s advice to the young Queen Elizabeth
There were so many ear-catching moments in Peter Hennessy’s series for Radio 4, Winds of Change, adapted from his new…
When the Grand Design met ‘le Grand Non’: Britain in the early 1960s
Peter Hennessy is a national treasure. He is driven by a romantic, almost sensual, fascination with British history, culture, and…
Rab Butler was too indecisive (and badly dressed) to be Prime Minister
‘The best prime minister we never had’ is not an epithet exclusive to Rab Butler. Widely applied to the late…
David Cameron’s place in the premier league of Tory history
Where will David Cameron rank among Tory prime ministers?
Should Euston Arch be raised from the dead?
Yes William Cook Rejoice! Rejoice! Fifty-four years after its destruction, Euston Arch has returned to Euston. Well, after a fashion.…
Be different, be original: that’s what makes a popular politician
I sometimes try to imagine what it would be like being a political leader. I find this difficult because I…
The art of political biography remains in intensive care if Giles Radice’s latest book is anything to go by, says Simon Heffer
With the odd exception — I think principally of Charles Moore’s life of Margaret Thatcher — the genre of political…
Those ancient Greeks were bores — but things are looking up
Thick snow is falling hard and heavy, muffling sounds and turning the picturesque village postcard beautiful. I am lying in…
Snobbery, sneering and secret sniggers: the sad truth about the so-called 'special relationship'
To the grand Herrera house on the upper east side of Manhattan for lunch in honour of Lord and Lady…
The gilded generation - why the young have never had it so good
The statistics speak for themselves. Today’s gilded generation is the most blessed that ever lived
Letters: Charles Saatchi's challenge to Taki, and the battle over Benefits Street
On Benefits Street Sir: Fraser Nelson asserts that people in charities do not want to talk about what life is…
The Spectator book review that brought down Macmillan's government
Did Macmillan stitch up his succession – or did Iain Macleod’s famous Spectator piece, 50 years old this week, stitch up Macmillan?
The men who demolished Victorian Britain
Anyone with a passing interest in old British buildings must get angry at the horrors inflicted on our town centres…
Don't hug me! (Even though sometimes it's rather nice)
Have we gained from abandoning the handshake?
