SUBSCRIBE | TRY A MONTH FREE Subscribe
Close
  • Coffee House
    • UK POLITICS
    • EU
    • US POLITICS
    • RELIGION
    • STEERPIKE
    • CULTURE
    • COFFEE HOUSE SHOTS PODCAST
  • Magazine
    • FEATURES
    • COLUMNISTS
    • BOOKS
    • ARTS
    • LETTERS
    • LIFE
    • CARTOONS
  • Writers
    • ROD LIDDLE
    • NICK COHEN
    • DOUGLAS MURRAY
    • FRASER NELSON
    • JAMES FORSYTH
    • ISABEL HARDMAN
    • LIONEL SHRIVER
  • BREXIT
  • Books & Arts
    • ARTS
    • BOOKS
    • BOOKS PODCAST
    • CULTURE HOUSE DAILY
  • Podcasts
    • THE SPECTATOR PODCAST
    • COFFEE HOUSE SHOTS
    • SPECTATOR BOOKS
    • AMERICANO
    • HOLY SMOKE
  • Health
  • Life
  • Money
  • EVENTS
  • More
    • SHOP
    • CARTOONS
    • 2019 DIARY
    • GIFTS
    • EMAIL BULLETINS
    • WINE CLUB
    • SPECTATOR CLUB
SUBSCRIBE | TRY A MONTH FREE

Justin Marozzi

Levison Wood. Credit Simon Buxton

Boys’ Own adventures in the war-torn Middle East

Justin Marozzi 10 November 2018 9:00 am

Ask most people whether they fancy a four-month, 5,000-mile trek across the Middle East and they might conclude you need…

Bactrian camels in the Khongoryn Els sand dunes of the Gobi Desert

The Empty Quarter is a great refuge for lonely hearts

Justin Marozzi 2 June 2018 9:00 am

When William Atkins and his girlfriend parted, he set off to explore eight of the world’s fieriest deserts, from Oman to the Taklamakan

Who knew that Arabic has more than 30 words for wine?

Justin Marozzi 31 March 2018 9:00 am

You know you’re in good hands when the dedication reads: ‘To the writers, drinkers and freethinkers of the Arab and…

Did the fabled Phoenicians ever actually exist?

Justin Marozzi 13 January 2018 9:00 am

So the Phoenicians never existed. Herodotus, that unreliable old fibber, made it all up in the Histories. Is this really…

Originals: Jack Dempsey, left, in his 1919 title fight

Boxer shorts

Justin Marozzi 19 August 2017 9:00 am

Chaps, be honest. Have you achieved nether-region nirvana? Twenty years ago I had reached the summit of underwear style and…

Part of a Quran originally bought in Fez in 1223, and removed from the Ahmed Baba Institute in Timbuktu for safety in 2012

Whispers of scandal over the rescue of Timbuktu’s manuscripts

Justin Marozzi 20 May 2017 9:00 am

Timbuktu. Can any other three syllables evoke such a thrill? For travellers, explorers and historians of Africa, the ancient desert…

We all love a winner: T.E. Lawrence

Will the tide ever turn on Lawrence of Arabia?

Justin Marozzi 18 March 2017 9:00 am

The centenary of General Allenby’s capture of Jerusalem falls later this year. On 11 December 1917, the commander-in-chief of Britain’s…

Muslim magic – Islam has always dabbled in the occult

Justin Marozzi 15 October 2016 9:00 am

Islam has always dabbled in the dark arts, says Justin Marozzi

Portrait of a youthful Patrick Leigh Fermor in Cretan costume, by Adrian Daintrey (oil on canvas), Chatsworth House, Derbyshire

Dashing for the book: A lifetime of letters from Paddy Leigh Fermor

Justin Marozzi 1 October 2016 9:00 am

Justin Marozzi says the letters of Patrick Leigh Fermor are a 20th-century treasure-trove and a feast for admirers of the great man

The Siege of Jerusalem, 1099: Christian knights hacked down thousands of Jews and Muslims in the name of God

Why the crusades ended – and jihad goes on

Justin Marozzi 9 July 2016 9:00 am

First a confession. Like many modern British readers, I have contracted a severe case of Jihad Overload Syndrome. Symptoms of…

T.E. Lawrence: from young romantic to shame-shattered veteran

Justin Marozzi 16 April 2016 9:00 am

T.E. Lawrence is seen as a ‘metaphor for imperialism, violence and betrayal’ in the Middle East. But woeful Arab leadership has also been to blame for the region’s problems, says Justin Marozzi

Left: The main gate to the mighty citadel has withstood centuries of invasion. Now much scarred, it presides over a bombed-out city, including the wrecked medieval souq (above), until recently the world’s largest and most vibrant covered historic market and Unesco world heritage site

Syria's Stalingrad: how Aleppo slipped from tolerance to terrorism

Justin Marozzi 5 March 2016 9:00 am

Justin Marozzi on the bitter irony of Aleppo’s ancient motto

Paradise — with a strong undercurrent of violence

Sri Lanka: emerald paradise with a dark interior

Justin Marozzi 29 October 2015 9:00 am

For a genre that is frequently dismissed as dead, travel writing is proving a remarkably stubborn survivor. If anything, this…

Let's fight terror - by holidaying in gorgeous, welcoming Tunisia

Justin Marozzi 4 July 2015 9:00 am

It needs – and deserves – British visitors more than ever

Justin Marozzi’s diary: Lunch with Saddam’s hangman, and a democratic revolution in Kensington

Justin Marozzi 25 April 2015 9:00 am

Lunch with the man who hanged Saddam. My irrepressible old Baghdad friend Mowaffak al-Rubaie, Ealing neurologist turned Iraqi national security…

An Armenian orphan in 1915. Hundreds of thousands of Christian women and children who survived the genocide suffered forced conversion to Islam

At last: a calm, definitive account of the Armenian genocide

Justin Marozzi 18 April 2015 9:00 am

The atrocities suffered by an estimated one million Armenians in 1915 have been largely ignored by historians and officially denied by the Turks. It’s a centenary we can’t afford to neglect, says Justin Marozzi

An unholy cross between Big Ben and Las Vegas, the Makkah Royal Clock Tower stands on an estimated 400 sites of cultural and historical importance

Mecca: from shrine to shopping mall

Justin Marozzi 6 December 2014 9:00 am

The Saudis, official custodians of Islam’s holiest place, have bulldozed its historical sites, perverted its religion and turned Mecca into one vast shopping mall, says Justin Marozzi

The shameful truth: Britain lets in far too few refugees

Justin Marozzi 8 November 2014 9:00 am

Britain’s appalling record on refugees is a moral failure, and national disgrace

Is it boring being the god of the sea?

Justin Marozzi 18 October 2014 9:00 am

Writing to a god seems a presumptuous thing. Who are we, feeble mortal creatures whose lives pass in the blink…

I’ve spent years in war zones. And the most terrifying moment of my life just happened in Norfolk

Justin Marozzi 11 October 2014 9:00 am

I’ve spent years in conflict zones. But the scariest thing that’s happened to me involved two bull terriers on a Norfolk beach

More derring dos and don’ts from Paddy Leigh Fermor

Justin Marozzi 4 October 2014 9:00 am

Recent years have seen the slim but splendid Patrick Leigh Fermor oeuvre swell considerably. In 2008 came In Tearing Haste,…

Close-up of Genghis towering 40 metres over his home pastures near the Mongol capital, Ulaanbaatar – the world’s biggest equestrian statue

Genghis Khan was tolerant, kind to women – and a record-breaking mass-murderer

Justin Marozzi 12 July 2014 9:00 am

Genghis Khan, unlike most Mongols in history, is a household name, regularly misappropriated as a right-wing totem. If we recall…

In defence of Herodotus

Justin Marozzi 14 December 2013 9:00 am

How many writers would give their eye teeth to have a book reissued 2,500 years after their death? It certainly…

The Broken Road, by Patrick Leigh Fermor - review

Justin Marozzi 7 September 2013 9:00 am

Sound the trumpets. Let rip the Byzantine chorus of clattering bells and gongs, the thunder of cannons, drums and flashing…

Embattled dystopia

Justin Marozzi 11 August 2012 6:00 am

Justin Marozzi sees years of sectarian strife ahead for Syria

1 2 3 »

Spectator USA

Follow us

Follow us on Twitter @spectator Like us on Facebook Follow us on Instagram @spectatorlife

Most Popular

  • Read
  • Read
    1. Is Emmanuel Macron about to call Theresa May’s bluff on the Brexit backstop?

      Fraser Nelson

    2. The Corbyn crack-up

      Nick Cohen

    3. [GETTY IMAGES]

      My diversity targets for the BBC

      Rod Liddle

    4. School children gather in Sydney last November to demand the government takes action on climate change [MARK METCALFE/GETTY IMAGES]

      If children want to protest against climate change, why not do it at the weekend?

      Toby Young

    5. Writers and Columnists | The Spectator

      Gareth Kime

    6. Sunday shows round-up: John McDonnell reveals Labour’s anti-Semitism response

      Matthew Taylor

    7. Martin Freeman as Gus and Danny Dyer as Ben in Harold Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter

      Danny Dyer is not so much an actor as a fairground attraction: Pinter Seven reviewed

      Lloyd Evans

    8. Culture House | Books and arts coverage from The Spectator

      admin

    9. Spectator Money | Finance news and investment advice

      Gareth Kime

    10. The EU and UK are one sentence away from a Brexit deal. Why the games?

      The Spectator

Editor’s Choice

What would Keynes make of a looming no-deal Brexit?

If children want to protest against climate change, why not do it at the weekend?

How fear and loathing of Nixon sent Hunter S. Thompson crazy

Fun at the EU’s expense: The Capital, by Robert Menasse, reviewed

Cartoons

‘Least said, texted, tweeted, retweeted, Instagrammed, posted, uploaded, shared, blogged, vlogged and Snapchatted, soonest mended.’
‘Least said, texted, tweeted, retweeted, Instagrammed, posted, uploaded, shared, blogged, vlogged and Snapchatted, soonest mended.’
‘At least Chris Grayling isn’t in charge of the ferry.’
‘At least Chris Grayling isn’t in charge of the ferry.’
‘Before you say it, no — you can’t hand in a marriage licence.’
‘Before you say it, no — you can’t hand in a marriage licence.’
‘Oh no! We’ve woken up too early and haven’t missed Brexit!’
‘Oh no! We’ve woken up too early and haven’t missed Brexit!’
‘Brexit? I’m stockpiling for a new statue of Thatcher.’
‘Brexit? I’m stockpiling for a new statue of Thatcher.’
‘A woman aged 55 could have painted it.’
‘A woman aged 55 could have painted it.’
‘A bit late for that — they’ve already appointed Nick Clegg.’
‘A bit late for that — they’ve already appointed Nick Clegg.’
‘On a clear day you can see five county lines drugs rackets.’
‘On a clear day you can see five county lines drugs rackets.’
Click here to find out more about subscribing to The Spectator’s free podcasts

Follow us on Twitter @spectator Like us on Facebook Follow us on Instagram @spectatorlife
  • About
    • Contact Us
    • FAQs
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Jobs and Vacancies
  • More from The Spectator
    • Spectator USA
    • The Spectator Australia
    • Apollo Magazine
    • The Spectator Shop
  • Advertising
    • Classified Advertisements
  • Subscribe
    • Club
    • Email Newsletters
The Spectator, 22 Old Queen Street, London, SW1H 9HP
+44 (0)3303 330 050
Site maintained by Creode
Close
  • Coffee House
    • UK POLITICS
    • EU
    • US POLITICS
    • RELIGION
    • STEERPIKE
    • CULTURE
    • COFFEE HOUSE SHOTS PODCAST
  • Magazine
    • FEATURES
    • COLUMNISTS
    • BOOKS
    • ARTS
    • LETTERS
    • LIFE
    • CARTOONS
  • Writers
    • ROD LIDDLE
    • NICK COHEN
    • DOUGLAS MURRAY
    • FRASER NELSON
    • JAMES FORSYTH
    • ISABEL HARDMAN
    • LIONEL SHRIVER
  • BREXIT
  • Books & Arts
    • ARTS
    • BOOKS
    • BOOKS PODCAST
    • CULTURE HOUSE DAILY
  • Podcasts
    • THE SPECTATOR PODCAST
    • COFFEE HOUSE SHOTS
    • SPECTATOR BOOKS
    • AMERICANO
    • HOLY SMOKE
  • Health
  • Life
  • Money
  • EVENTS
  • More
    • SHOP
    • CARTOONS
    • 2019 DIARY
    • GIFTS
    • EMAIL BULLETINS
    • WINE CLUB
    • SPECTATOR CLUB