1+ week, 2+ day ago   (223+ words) Some facts and figures on the Bayeux tapestry, which is going on display at the British Museum this month: — It is 230ft long and depicts 58 individual scenes. There are 626 people, 190 horses and 35 dogs. — There are many theories as to where and…...

2+ week, 2+ day ago   (857+ words) Perhaps you’ve heard of Akihiko Kondo before. He’s the Japanese man who “married” the Vocaloid character Hatsune Miku, a computer-generated pop singer in a formal – though not strictly official – ceremony in 2018. He wore a tuxedo, she a handmade dress and veil,…...

3+ week, 5+ day ago   (176+ words) My reading experiences with the poet and novelist Charles Bukowski (1920-94), once described by Time magazine as the ‘laureate of American lowlife’, have taught me an important truth about literature: that characters you hate can be at least as compelling as…...

3+ week, 6+ day ago   (371+ words) What sounds more like a mob to you? Reporters asking questions about a professor’s CV and backstory? Or swarms of the perpetually offended damning those reporters as racists, fascists, scum, even murderers? It’s the latter, isn’t it? This is the…...

1+ mon, 1+ day ago   (223+ words) Jonathan Cape, pp. 272, £22 Artists, writers, musicians and filmmakers begin to perceive culture not only as a victim but as a weapon Higgins, a celebrated arts journalist, took up her first Ukrainian assignment in September 2022 and found herself both ‘inside’ the…...

1+ mon, 3+ day ago   (600+ words) After the Jason Arday disaster, here is new evidence that things have gone deeply wrong at Cambridge University. We can reveal that a former supporter of Hizb ut-Tahrir, now banned as a terror group, has been appointed assistant research professor…...

1+ mon, 2+ week ago   (73+ words) The Spectator John Murray, pp. 309, £20 In his mid-forties, Miles Krzelewski is a graduate student who makes Saul Bellow’s Herzog look like an academic overachiever. After 14 years and 11 changes of subject – including Rabelais’s monsters, Chekhov’s early humour and Tolstoy’s train journeys…...

1+ mon, 2+ week ago   (15+ words) The Spectator Latest issue August 3 2026 Next up Food & Drink...

1+ mon, 3+ week ago   (142+ words) Sir: Matt Ridley is bang on with his points about rewilding in the UK – one must add the Scottish crossbill to the list of endemic birds. There is an opportunity for some reintroduction of nationally absent species, and I would…...

1+ mon, 3+ week ago   (308+ words) The Spectator The finest music ever composed by a Breton naval officer There’s a special art in making something difficult appear effortless, and the string trio is a supreme test. It’s the smallest viable unit for string chamber music: with…...