Subscriber Only
How I found salvation in a church in Torquay
Last Tuesday a Mistral wind blowing across the Bay of Angels jerked the plane all over the shop as it…
The pros and cons of robot vision
Being told I am now both short-sighted and long-sighted feels like someone is playing a very bad joke on me.…
The Scottish literary giants who stoked the fires of Anglophobia
On the Scottish literary giants who stoked the fires of Anglophobia
The golden age of nightclubs
I find myself detached from mainstream culture. It started with the demise of nightclubs like Annabel’s and the arrival of…
Is gluttony no longer a sin?
I’ve no interest in food. None. But for the three other journalists on our press trip, eating was a consuming…
The builder boyfriend has fallen off the roof – and still he won’t see a doctor
The builder boyfriend fell off a roof. He didn’t tell me until he could no longer leave unexplained why he…
My fellow dinner guests made me feel like a combination of Messalina and Lady Macbeth
I was walking up St James’s and happy to be in London. For a change I was not rushing but…
The horror of Heathrow
There are no stairs or escalators to take you up to Terminal 4 from the underground Heathrow Express platform. Beyond…
Dogging on our doorstep
Some might say it was a typical over-reaction on my part to erect hidden cameras at the horses’ field. First…
A last chance to save the BBC
Whoever becomes the next director-general of the BBC should take a close look at last week’s Question Time. It came…
Why do monsters make such good writers?
Did any of you know that most of the 20th-century monsters — Stalin, Mao, Hitler, Ceausescu, Duvalier, and even the…
Whisky and striptease: stories from an old people’s home
For the last four years of her long life, this upstairs room and this magnificent sea view belonged to Mrs…
What has Mr Benn got to do with horse insurance?
‘Time to begin your adventure with Mr Benn!’ said the letter that came through my door, in a big loopy…
We want one thing from our royals: patriotism
There is a fascinating social media group which I think we should all join. It is called ‘DeMOCKracy — 2019…
Two books that made me forget everything else
Gstaad I’ve been hitting the books rather hard lately, the ritzy-glitzy crowd having gone the way of natural snow. There’s…
War has broken out between me and my siblings
Last night I watched a boxed set. Parade’s End is a small box set as box sets go, and quite…
How to catch a thief
My tech guy Andy appeared on the doorstep in a puff of smoke. I had just texted him to ask…
World war three? No, this was about Trump’s second term
If this is the start of the third world war, as some quivering liberal commentators seem to believe, then my…
The Middle East for dummies
Gstaad The French have a saying: ‘Il n’y a rien de plus bête que le sourire du gagnant.’ In…
The death of my desert-island fantasy
I was on the back seat of a golf buggy being driven down to the marina from my beachside villa…
How my new pony swept me off my feet – literally
‘This is the one I was thinking of for you,’ said the lady I might feasibly call my mother-in-law, in…
Caroline Flint could have beaten Boris
There were not many moments of gloom on election night. I spent most of it, so far as I can…
Why 2019 has been a wonderful year
I received my Christmas present earlier than usual. It was a message sent via The Spectator from a gentleman who…
A young Rwandan scholar left a profound impression on me
In the Rwandan Genocide Memorial gift shop I bought a handy Kinyarwanda–Kiswahili–English phrase book. The tipping point in the decision…
The strange case of the everlasting bonfire
The bonfire burned and burned, choking out black smoke, and when my headache got so bad I could barely see…
