History
What do Robin Hood, Jack the Ripper and Winston Churchill have in common?
Houdini, Antarctica, a maternity ward, the electric chair – they’re all subjects of failed musicals. But it’s impossible to predict what will work, says Roger Lewis
Capital dramas on and off the stage
Theatre buildings are seriously interesting – as I ought to have appreciated sooner in the course of 25 years writing…
Centuries of calculation – from tally sticks to computers
It’s odd, when you think about it, that mathematics ever got going. We have no innate genius for numbers. Drop…
The source of Mozart’s inspiration - a great musical whodunnit
If you were to compare Mozart to a bird it wouldn’t be the starling. Possibly the wood thrush or nightingale,…
Wolves, wheat and wool: in search of old England
Englishness is big business in the nation of shopkeepers, and not just in politics and tourism. In literature, the gypsy…
From anchorites to zeppelins: the giddy range of Levitation
Levitation. We all know what it is: the ‘disregard for gravity’, as Peter Adey puts it in his new book,…
Michael Kidson — in a class of his own
The Enigma of Kidson is a quintessentially Etonian book: narcissistic, complacent, a bit silly and ultimately beguiling. It is the…
RSC's latest is like a week-long episode of Blackadder without the jokes
The RSC’s summer blockbuster is about Queen Anne. It’s called Queen Anne. It opens at the Inns of Court where…
Hitler’s glamorous high flyers
Keith Lowe on Nazi Germany’s two remarkable female pilots, both holders of the Iron Cross, First Class
Hilary Mantel explains the difference between facts and truths
‘History is not the past,’ says the writer Hilary Mantel in the first of her Reith Lectures on Radio 4…
Is London’s Green Belt responsible for its housing crisis?
‘The area’s isolation has given it a strong sense of community and independence,’ runs the Wikipedia entry on New Addington.…
The post-truth is out there
In a political ‘post-truth’ world, currently the subject of a slew of books, emotions and personal belief are said to…
The Lost City of Z is a very long way from a true story — and I should know
A new Hollywood film portrays Percy Fawcett as our greatest explorer. It’s pernicious nonsense
March 1917: Russians are proving themselves worthy of self-government
From ‘The Russian revolution’, 24 March 1917: Even now, though the Revolution is young, the Russians have proved that they are fit…
The charms of old Paris – and the naughtiest girl of the 20th century
Paris used to be the most self-confident city in the world. Brash, assertive, boastful: Manhattan claimed to be the best.…
The first recorded woman golfer (clue: it wasn’t Mary Queen of Scots)
Mary Queen of Golf? The vote by the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers to admit women as members has reawakened…
‘The worst fault any military plan can have’: on the Dardanelles debacle
From ‘The Dardanelles report’, 17 March 1917: The plan of the government in the case of the Dardanelles Expedition had…
A new Ripper mystery: Why Patricia Cornwell won't stop hunting him
Why has crime writer Patricia Cornwell spent two decades and $6 million hunting Victorian London’s most notorious killer?
Will the tide ever turn on Lawrence of Arabia?
The centenary of General Allenby’s capture of Jerusalem falls later this year. On 11 December 1917, the commander-in-chief of Britain’s…
Our island story
It used to be thought that emphasising British history in multi-ethnic schools was somehow wrong. But it is the best way to foster integration, says Robert Peal
How did we end up naming storms?
Naming the weather Former BBC weatherman Bill Giles has said he’s fed up with storms being named. — The practice…
1917: Saving the English village
From ‘Sir Thomas Acland’s example’, The Spectator, 3 March 1917: In 1912 we discussed the idea — a favourite dream…
1917: The Americans are coming!
From ‘What will the United States do?’, The Spectator, 24 February 1917: It may be that the congestion of American…
The Islamic world did liberalise – but then came the first world war
The Muslim world had an age of modernisation. It died in the first world war
Time to wake up to the benefits of the sleeper
As a child, I used to travel with my mother from London to Cannes, a journey that took slightly under…
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