J.K. Rowling

Could J.K. Rowling be Oxford’s next chancellor?

6 April 2024 9:00 am

Among my generation of Oxford graduates – late fifties, early sixties – there is currently a great deal of talk…

What happened to Stephen Fry’s belief in scientific reason?

21 November 2022 1:47 am

Here’s my question for Stephen Fry after he said his trans friends had felt ‘deeply upset’ by some of the…

J.K. Rowling and the death of nuance

6 January 2022 3:20 am

There are few good things to say about the public conversation around transgender issues, which all too often shows us…

Harry Potter and the strange absence of J.K. Rowling

3 January 2022 8:19 pm

Harry Potter returned to Hogwarts this weekend for a 20th anniversary special. He was joined in the Gryffindor common room…

The best children’s books: a Spectator Christmas survey

18 December 2021 9:00 am

J.K. Rowling Poignant, funny and genuinely scary, The Hundred and One Dalmatians was one of my favourite books as a…

Contains moments of spellbinding banality: Radio 4's The Poet Laureate has Gone to his Shed reviewed

21 August 2021 9:00 am

The interview podcast is a genre immoderately drawn to gimmicks, as the logical space of possible formats is gradually exhausted.…

Animal magic: children’s books for Christmas

28 November 2020 9:00 am

J.K. Rowling has written a book for children — and you know what? It’s a charmer. The Ickabod(Hachette, £20) was…

disneyfication

The Disneyfication of the moral universe

27 October 2020 8:29 am

‘I’m sitting here struggling for words and my friend nailed it: “She was our Princess Leia.”’ With those words, Dr…

JK Rowling’s fundamental mistake

19 September 2020 9:00 am

I had my first doubts about Lord Hall, the former director-general of the BBC, when he addressed a group of…

Welcome to the world you created, J.K. Rowling

18 July 2020 9:00 am

Welcome to the world you created, J.K. Rowling

nervous

Our collective nervous breakdown

25 June 2020 1:40 am

It’s being sold by some as a glorious revolution, but what Western culture is really experiencing is a garden variety…

speech

Can’t stand free speech? You’re fired!

19 June 2020 10:54 pm

Since the whole world is in crisis, a crisis in the world of publishing might seem like a niche issue.…

j.k. rowling

Speak up for J.K. Rowling

13 June 2020 1:57 am

Nerds everywhere are frantically googling tattoo removal services this week, as the author who inspired their ink failed to STFU…

A mess: Fantastic Beasts reviewed

17 November 2018 9:00 am

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is the sequel to the Harry Potter prequel Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find…

Fantastic beasts and where to find them: ‘Wild Woman with Unicorn’, 1500–10

A brief history of unicorns

22 September 2018 9:00 am

After the England football team beat Tunisia at this summer’s World Cup, they celebrated with a swimming-pool race on inflatable…

Unhappy days

30 September 2017 9:00 am

Scriptwriters love to feast on the lives of children’s authors. The themes tend not to vary: they may have brought…

Second thoughts

9 September 2017 9:00 am

I had planned to review David Mitchell and Robert Webb’s new Channel 4 sitcom Back without constantly referring to their…

Illustration by Arthur Rackham for Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle

Do myths and folklore damage children’s brains?

4 June 2016 9:00 am

Children’s fantasy literature has never been just one thing. Animal fables, folk and fairy tales were not originally intended for…

James Runcie’s diary: A Willie’s shock at the SNP

9 May 2015 9:00 am

I am writing a play about Dr Johnson and his Dictionary. It will be performed in Scotland later this year.…

UKIP: The First 100 Days, Channel 4, review: a sad, predictable, desperate hatchet job

21 February 2015 9:00 am

Just three months into Ukip’s shock victory as the party of government and already Nigel Farage’s mob are starting to…

J.K. Rowling is just too nice – and too lucky – to satirise publishing

28 June 2014 9:00 am

J.K. Rowling’s second novel under the Robert Galbraith moniker is a whodunit set in the publishing industry. This isn’t a…

Dan Snow's diary: Making World Cup history

21 June 2014 8:00 am

Could there be a more timely advert for the Better Together campaign than on the field of sport? What the…

It’s the summer of the topless man – and there’s nothing we can do to stop it

20 July 2013 9:00 am

Topless men. What does that mean, then? I was opposite one on the tube the other day, heading north from…