Royalty

English civil law has become a luxury good beyond the reach of most of us

13 April 2024 9:00 am

Tom Burgis makes this painfully clear in his account of the long hounding of the former MP Charlotte Leslie by the vengeful millionaire Mohamed Amersi

The Duke of Windsor had much to be thankful for

25 November 2023 9:00 am

Defending the ‘maligned’ Duke, Jane Marguerite Tippett fails to mention how hard officials worked to suppress evidence of his treachery and prevent a court martial in 1940

The art of the monarchy

17 September 2022 9:00 am

Michael Hall on how the Queen made her mark on the Royal Collection

The political cunning of Elizabeth II: BBC1's The Longest Reign – The Queen and Her People reviewed

17 September 2022 9:00 am

In all the tributes to Her late Majesty’s constancy, dignity, wisdom and devotion to duty, not enough has been said…

BBC radio has excelled itself over the past week

17 September 2022 9:00 am

Listening to BBC Radios 3 and 4 over the past week has been like meeting an old friend who, after…

Why I love Her Majesty

4 June 2022 9:00 am

I’ve often wondered whether Her Majesty the Queen glances through The Spectator from time to time. And if she does,…

In praise of Greek royalty

4 June 2022 9:00 am

New York Prince Pavlos, heir to the Greek throne, turned 55 recently and I threw a small dinner for him.…

You can make anything up about the royal family and it will be printed as a matter of fact

30 April 2022 9:00 am

Royal gossip is largely invented, says Philip Hensher – but Tina Brown repeats it regardless

Will the end of monarchy in Barbados spark a chain reaction?

2 December 2021 11:24 pm

As of this week, the Queen is down to 15 thrones, after the royal standard was lowered in Barbados in…

Donald Trump: monarchist?

2 December 2021 2:26 am

As the Harry and Meghan carnival rumbles on, the Queen has found an unexpected source of support: Donald Trump. During an…

Did any of this actually happen? The Crown, season four, reviewed

14 November 2020 9:00 am

‘We have to stop it now!’ says Princess Margaret (Helena Bonham Carter), smoking another cigarette, obviously. She’s talking about the…

Pyramids of piffle: Tate Britain’s British Baroque reviewed

15 February 2020 9:00 am

British Baroque: it was never going to fly. Les rosbifs emulating the splendour of le Roi Soleil? Pas possible. Still,…

The only bearable TV series these days are the ones with subtitles, like Der Pass

7 December 2019 9:00 am

True to the Andrew Roberts rule that the only bearable series on TV these days are ones with subtitles, I’ve…

What happened to the other Dukes of York?

23 November 2019 9:00 am

Old Dukes of York Prince Andrew is the 14th royal to have held the title Duke of York (three were…

War of the Worlds is as bad as Doctor Who

23 November 2019 9:00 am

Edwardian England deserved everything it got from those killer Martian invaders. Or so I learned from the BBC’s latest adaptation…

How do Britain’s pubs get their names?

18 May 2019 9:00 am

An easy one: what links Jack Straw’s Castle, The Labouring Boys and The Jolly Taxpayer? No, not the parliamentary expenses…

Kenneth Rose

High society and low gossip: the journals of Kenneth Rose

15 December 2018 9:00 am

Kenneth Rose was gossip columnist by appointment to the aristocracy and gentry. He was, of course, a snob — nobody…

The Queen on a Royal Tour of Pakistan in 1961.

Elizabeth II: Queen of tact and diplomacy

8 December 2018 9:00 am

In her 66 years on the throne the Queen has represented Britain on official visits to at least 126 countries…

Not so fast Monsieur Pompidou: The Queen in Paris in 1972

Elizabeth, the Eurosceptic queen

15 September 2018 9:00 am

There has been much inconclusive speculation on the Queen’s views on Brexit. In 2016, the Sun asserted that she was…

Rob Auton (Chris) in Frank Skinner’s Nina’s Got News

Is Frank Skinner the new Alan Bennett? Edinburgh Fringe round-up

25 August 2018 9:00 am

For recovering teetotallers, like me, Thinking Drinkers is the perfect Edinburgh show. On stage, two sprucely dressed actors perform sketches…

How I learned to stop worrying and love the monarchy

9 December 2017 9:00 am

Prince Harry does not exist and soon Meghan Markle will cease to exist too. None of the royal family exist.…

Portrait of Queen Caroline by Joseph Highmore, c.1735

Caroline of Ansbach: the best of the Hanoverians

25 November 2017 9:00 am

It can sometimes seem — unfairly but irresistibly — as if the sole function of the myriad Lilliputian German statelets…

Going Dutch: Eelco Smits and Janni Goslinga of Toneelgroep Amsterdam in ‘Kings of War’

This year's must-see Shakespeare? Four hours of history in Dutch

23 April 2016 9:00 am

James Woodall talks to the Belgian director Ivo van Hove, who has brought a swathe of Shakespeare’s history plays to the stage in Dutch (four hours of it)

What was the secret of Queen Victoria's rebel daughter?

11 January 2014 9:00 am

Princess Louise (1848–1939), Queen Victoria’s fourth daughter, was the prettiest and liveliest of the five princesses, and the only one…