A further selection of the best and worst books of 2008 , chosen by some of our regular reviewers Ferdinand Mount I’m not sure quite what it is that captivated me about Tim Winton’s novel, Breath (Hamish Hamilton, £14.99). It’s a sort of Huck Finn goes surfing in Australia. A scrawny kid bums along the
Here are some of the posts made over the weekend on Spectator.co.uk: Complete footage of the Spectator / Threadneedle Parliamentarian awards has been uploaded here. Fraser Nelson says that Gordon Brown thinks the truth is hell. James Forsyth warns David Cameron against shifting George Osborne, and suggests that a constitutional monarch should be seen and
The licence fee is good value Sir: Charles Moore has really talked himself into a corner this time with regard to his pathological dislike of the BBC (The Spectator’s Notes, 8 November). Like many other ‘BBC bashers’ on the Right he seems to gleefully welcome the Ross and Brand affair as a vindication of his
We’ve uploaded complete footage of the recent Spectator / Threadneedle Parliamentarian awards ceremony. You can watch it here.
The hint of tax cuts made by Gordon Brown this week is a piece of political audacity which could only be matched were the Conservatives suddenly to commit themselves to the common ownership of the means of production. This is a Prime Minister who for years has sought to beat down the opposition by claiming
Our live chat with the Booker-nominated author Philip Hensher will be kicking off in about fifteen minutes over at the online Book Club. So, if you’re a fan of Philip’s work, a bibliophile or just stuck for something to do, do come and join us between 19:30 and 20:15. You can take part by clicking
Today’s your last day for submitting questions to Francis Maude. Just write your questions for him in the comments section to the relevant post. We’ll put some of them to the Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office this evening. Also today, the recently-launched, online Spectator Book Club will be hosting a live chat with the
Sam Leith Richard Price’s meaty and fabulously enjoyable police procedural, Lush Life (Bloomsbury, £12.99), is a book I have pressed on a lot of friends. The new Robert B. Parker, Rough Weather (Quercus, £16.99), is bliss, too, because it has Spenser, Hawk and the Gray Man in it. Short stories from Kurt Vonnegut (Armageddon in
Some of the posts made over the weekend on Spectator.co.uk: Matthew d’Ancona watches two films which deal with recent history. Fraser Nelson suggests that David Cameron shouldn’t repeat John McCain’s tax error. James Forsyth reports on the latest Tory poll lead, and claims we can have a British Obama. Peter Hoskin marks Remembrance Sunday, and
The MoD’s failure of duty Sir: Charles Moore berates Oxford deputy coroner Andrew Walker for upbraiding officialdom in the matter of the death of Para Corporal Mark Wright, deeming such criticism of the military establishment to be ‘outrageous’ (The Spectator’s Notes, 25 October). The fact is that Tony Blair launched our armed forces into five
One of Robert F. Kennedy’s favourite passages of poetry was drawn from Tennyson’s ‘Ulysses’: ‘Come, my friends,/ ’Tis not too late to seek a newer world./ Push off, and sitting well in order smite/ The sounding furrows… strong in will/ To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.’ On 4 November, the American
Here are some of the posts made over the past week on Spectator.co.uk: James Forsyth reports from the US on the culmination of the presidential election. He outlines Barack Obama’s achievement here. And takes a moment to praise John McCain here. Toby Young argues that Obama isn’t black. Matthew d’Ancona reports on the fight to
Earlier this week, we launched the online Spectator Book Club. You can access it by clicking here; clicking on the Book Club tab at the top of any Spectator.co.uk page; or by entering new.spectator.co.uk/books into your address bar. Once there, you’ll find a host of content to satisfy even the most ardent booklover – from a
Here are some of the posts made over the weekend on Spectator.co.uk: James Forsyth reports from the US on the latest developments in the Presidential race. He identifies what’s wrong with John McCain’s message here. And provides an election night viewing guide here. Fraser Nelson says the government are losing the war on drugs, and
We now have October’s monthly traffic figures for Spectator.co.uk – and they show our highest-ever “unique user” and “page impression” statistics. In October, unique users soared to 338,053 – an increase of 39 percent on September. And 2,147,545 page impressions were recorded – an increase of 15 percent. Following on from the revamp of the
The Spectator corrects a recent article Correction: In the version of Victoria Floethe’s story that appeared in this week’s magazine, we inadvertently referred at one point to the Wall Street Journal instead of the New York Post. We accept that there is no basis for suggesting that the WSJ might have indulged in an act
Poorer each day Sir: Patrick Macaskie (‘The market needs short-sellers’, 25 October) is indeed correct in suggesting that the problems caused by excessive borrowing could be solved by a round of inflation; in the same way the problem of a building having caught fire can be solved by allowing it to burn down. As Macaskie
It is one of the peculiarities of a recession that it cannot officially be acknowledged until, often, it is already history. This week, we learned that the economy shrunk 0.5 per cent in the third quarter of 2008. It will not be until January, however, when two quarters of negative growth have been recorded, that
Matthew d’Ancona congratulates Marcus du Sautoy on his appointment to the Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science. Mary Wakefield asks the Debbie Purdy question. The Skimmer attacks the BBC over BrandRossgate. Fraser Nelson says George Osborne needs to recast his policy for the new era, and marks the moment Alistair Darling read the
Brown v. Clegg Hat tip: Politics Home