A.L. Kennedy Novelist I dislike dates. It’s either a yes, or a no. Why date? Sadly, I am both bad at reading the signals which indicate the outbreak of a date and attractive to people who are bad at signals. This means that I end up — often in coffee shops — with a variety
From The Spare Bedroom, The Spectator, 12 December 1914: OUR national individuality has been threatened, with the result that all English institutions are at this moment specially dear to the Englishman. We are prepared to defend them from first to last—from the system of government to the spare bedroom. Indeed, though we may jestingly call
Matthew Parris Spectator and Times columnist One evening in 1995 some friends brought a friend to dinner at my flat. His name was Julian, and he seemed rather bright. As it happened, the Nigerian ecological campaigner and fighter for rights of the Ogoni people, Ken Saro-Wiwa, was in prison having been convicted on trumped-up charges
Celia Walden Journalist and novelist It was supposed to be an interview, not a date. But Piers seemed to have other ideas. The Ivy dinner crowd was particularly amusing that day: Baroness Thatcher to our left, Louis Walsh with a group of X Factor ingénues to our right. In the corner, Salman Rushdie was seducing
From The New German Artillery, The Spectator, 12 December 1914: We shall have to wait a long time, we surmise, till the merits or demerits of the various new weapons are proved.Perhaps before judgment is delivered other new weapons will be introduced. The data are still very imperfect. We cannot say yet, for instance, whether
From The Crowning Proof, The Spectator, 12 December 1914: THE crowning proof that German intrigue and cynicism caused the war was provided in the remarkable statement which Signor Giolitti, the ex-Prime Minister, made in the Italian Chamber last Saturday. He said:- “On August 9th, 1913, the Marquis Di San Giuliano, then Foreign Minister, sent me
James Runcie Author of The Grantchester Mysteries I met Lucy at a dinner party in the early 1980s. By the main course we were holding hands under the table. She told me she was about to go travelling in China. By the time we reached the pudding I told her that I would wait, and
‘And what exactly is it about the new nose that you’re not happy with?’
‘He’s the best window cleaner I’ve ever had.’
Christmas truce
‘Well, this is disappointing. I was hoping there’d be more clothes.’
‘What ho ho ho, Jeeves!’
‘You wait ages for a ship, then three come sailing in at once.’
‘Wow, it makes you feel really significant, doesn’t it?’
‘You have reached your destination.’
‘You’re completely out of touch with how ordinary people live!’
