England
A slog – and why does Elizabeth look like Ronald McDonald? Mary Queen of Scots reviewed
Mary Queen of Scots is a historical costume drama that, unlike The Favourite, does not breathe new life into the…
![The Battle of Vigo, 1702. [Getty Images]](https://spectator.imgix.net/content/uploads/2018/11/The-Battle-of-Vigo-Bay-1702.jpg?auto=compress,enhance,format&crop=faces,entropy,edges&fit=crop&w=410&h=275)
Plucky upstarts: the brave history of seapowers
The sea — that wine-dark whale road, to mix Homeric and Anglo-Saxon evocations of it — has always held a…
What Uber rides taught me about immigration
It was blessedly cool inside the Romanesque nave, its massive arches resisting the heat as they had done everything else…
Raheem Sterling’s article is brilliant but did he actually write it?
England’s Raheem Sterling has underwhelmed so far at the World Cup. Off the pitch, however, he is winning new fans.…
I can’t wait for England to be knocked out of the World Cup
On Monday evening, I watched a man in a smart shirt and trousers put his friend in a headlock while…
Britain and Islam – the real special relationship
Britain has deep ties to Islam that date back centuries
I am a human football
My latest bed partner is a seven-year-old lad. That first night we slept together in my double bed, I hardly…
The beauty and heartbreak of Haywain country
You’ve already seen a picture of the Essex-Suffolk border. Assuming you’ve seen Constable’s ‘The Haywain’, that is: the Stour (the…
England: a populous totalitarian state on a war footing
I drew back the curtains. Yet another absolutely still, sunny day. Early-morning mist lying in the valleys. An echoing report…
Stay amid the stones of Rievaulx
We’re so used to looking at the abbeys smashed up by Henry VIII — particularly Rievaulx and Byland, in north…
Glyndebourne on a summer’s eve was Arcadia
I know little about human medicine: still less about the animal equivalent. So I had always assumed that vets were…
My hero Nigel Farage told me the secret of Brexit success
I am trying to decide with some friends which is worse, English weather or English football. The former is improving…
A guide to Britain’s most strenuous walks
Cols and Passes of the British Isles
Let’s celebrate follies – England’s most distinctive contribution to world architecture
Ruined castles, altars, temples of virtue, alcoves, labyrinths, pagodas: Stephen Bayley celebrates a peculiarly English obsession
Labour must stop feeling repulsed by the idea of Englishness
My party needs to stop being scared of patriotism
Reasons to be cheerful about cricket, football and the Grand National
Well the sun is out, the sky is blue, and poor Boris Johnson is taking such a pounding from Matthew…
Emma Thompson’s wrong about the EU and cake
At first glance, Emma Thompson’s intervention in the Brexit debate earlier this week didn’t make much sense. Asked at the…
The shocking truth about the English and the Scots: they agree
Last year, the United Kingdom came within 384,000 votes of destruction. A referendum designed to crush the Scottish nationalists instead…
Wrestling with the romantic glory of the Lake District
Cumberland and Westmorland Wrestling is the best thing in the Lake District. I lived near Wigton, just north of the…
Jeremy Corbyn isn’t like Caligula’s horse – he’s like Caligula
Jeremy Corbyn has been compared to plenty of people over the past few months — a geography teacher, Michael Foot,…
Tristram Hunt’s diary: The rainy glories of Devon – and a cold political climate
‘Devon, Devon, Devon/ Where it rains six days out of seven.’ Nothing beats a British seaside holiday. And north Devon…
Why nothing in sport beats thrashing the Aussies at cricket
Why nothing in sport beats thrashing the Aussies at cricket
Prue Leith’s diary: When did weddings stop being for parents?
My Cambodian daughter and her husband have just got married again. Wedding One was a Buddhist affair in our drawing…
Would Betjeman recognise anything about today’s north Cornwall?
In a documentary filmed at the end of his life, Sir John Betjeman, who lived in the village of Trebetherick…
The pitfalls of picnics (and how to avoid them)
Strange, isn’t it, that despite having such famously terrible weather, we Brits are so fond of a picnic. It’s something…
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