Literary festivals are no fun
Writers aren’t fun — they’re miserable egotists and that’s why we write
Writers aren’t fun — they’re miserable egotists and that’s why we write
From our UK edition
I have a friend who describes me as an ‘uptight boring old straight heterosexual’ – simply because I don’t use porn or prostitutes, don’t swing both ways and have no interest in orgies and dogging, or any desire to be tied up and flogged by some fat dominatrix in a ‘torture den’ in Pimlico. He
One should never complain about not being invited to something
From our UK edition
In the wake of new research by New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine, scientists think a treatment for stopping our hair going grey – and even reversing it – may soon be possible. Their optimism is based on early positive experiments with mice, which is great news if you’re a mouse, but what if
I have a new woman in my life and not just any woman. I have a Woke Woman
The era of the Great Literary Sex God is over
From our UK edition
Pundits writing for a young audience are always telling readers to ‘stop pretending to be working-class!’ and stop ‘fetishising the working class’. They seem more angered by the imitation of class than the iniquities of class itself. Singer Lily Allen and the rap star Yungblud have both been denounced on Twitter for – to paraphrase
From our UK edition
18 min listen
This week: James Heale asks whether the cabinet secretary Simon Case can carry on (01:00), Cosmo Landesman tells the story of when a man – and his axe – came to visit his home in London (05:03), and Miranda Morrison warns against the damaging obsession with STEM in secondary schools (11:10). Produced and presented by
From our UK edition
One day in October 1966 I came home from school and found a large man stripped to the waist, attacking the family piano with a woodman’s axe. Seeing the anxious look on my face, my father assured me there was nothing to be afraid of. The axe-wielding man was, he explained, an ‘artist’ who was
Bohemian London is full of men like me who now depend on the kindness of friends for life’s little luxuries
During their sessions together The Other Man does that old Freudian trick of staying silent
Like the cancel culture of the woke, the cancel culture of friendship is made possible by technology
My book has not gotten sensational reviews. It’s gotten no reviews — at least from the national press
My Dinner with Jordan Peterson makes for a better dinner-party story than My Buddy’s Book Launch
Meet the new me: the shameless, self-promoting media slut that I’m trying to become
From our UK edition
24 min listen
This week on Spectator Out Loud: Keiron Pim discusses what young Ukrainians can learn from the works of Joseph Roth (01:00), Miranda Morrison reflects on her decision to quit her job as a teacher (11:26), and Cosmo Landesman asks whether successful writers can be friends with less successful ones (19:39). Produced and presented by Oscar
From our UK edition
36 min listen
In this week’s episode: We look ahead to Harry and Meghan’s UK tour next week, how will they be received? Freddy Gray and Tanya Gold join the Edition podcast to discuss (01:01). Also this week: In the Spectator magazine, our Economics Editor Kate Andrews sat down with the three economists, or ‘Trussketeers’, that are informing
From our UK edition
You might have noticed the numerous glowing pieces by friends of Salman Rushdie about their ‘brave’ and ‘brilliant’ friend. I too would like to write a glowing piece about my brave and brilliant friend Salman Rushdie, but there’s one little problem: I’m not a friend of his. In fact I don’t have any famous novelist
Wonder what sort of a sad sack asks for a selfie with someone famous? Answer: me
I waited twenty years for the Tina call — but alas I suspect I’ve got a lot more waiting to do