Heritage
The rootlessness that haunts the children of immigrants
Edward Wong tries to connect with his Chinese heritage by retracing his father’s military postings before the Great Famine – but finds the country too changed to make comparisons
Why Stonehenge doesn’t have to go the same way as Liverpool
It has not been a good month for the United Kingdom’s internationally important heritage sites. Stonehenge is teetering on the…
Warning: there’s a plague of fake blue plaques
One of the great distinctions and pleasures of British life has been devalued by cheap imitations
The price of a cathedral – and how deans pay it
Deans are facing tough decisions to keep their beautiful buildings in good order
The lovely Clare Valley, like southern France with added kangaroos
It is a century and a half since The Spectator noted the exceptional qualities of South Australia, a colony of…
The birth of the plastic bag (blame Sweden)
Old bags The government announced details of a compulsory 5p charge for single-use plastic bags in shops. Plastic bags have…
Meet the men taking up arms to protect the Middle East’s ancient treasures
Syrians, Libyans and Malians are risking their lives to save ancient treasures from Islamists – with shamefully little help from us
The graveyard where old Glasgow lives on
A wet walk in a Glaswegian graveyard might not be your idea of fun, but then you might not have…
The National Trust is spoiling beautiful places in the name of people who’ll never visit them
Why do we ruin beautiful places to make them appeal to those who’ll never visit anyway?
Christopher Buckley's diary: Do you have to be American to love Downton?
My wife and I spent the winter in Worcestershire. This allowed me to tell everyone back home in the States:…
Meeting George Osborne at Waterloo
The defence of Hougoumont is one of the great British feats of arms. If the farmhouse had fallen to Bonaparte’s…
Tristram Hunt's diary: Why has Gove allowed a school that makes women wear the hijab?
ONE OF THE MINOR sociological treats of being appointed shadow education secretary is a frontbench view of David Cameron’s crimson…
Christopher Sykes’s diary: David Hockney, Bridlington lobster, and the risks of a third martini
I began my week with a trip to Bridlington, the closest seaside town to my childhood home. ‘Brid’, as it’s…
