O n 19 February 2005 The Spectator ’s cover bore the arresting headline: ‘Goodbye England’, and the sombre silhouette of a lone huntsman. The issue attracted much attention,...

— asked me if I was looking forward to St George’s Day. One of them was a road-sweeper. Apparently it falls this year on 23 April, although in 1861 its date appears to be two...

B efore the campaign for an English parliament has time to gather critical mass, its goal may already be achieved. The first vote David Cameron’s government holds on health will...

Special Issue, I happened to be reading a novel by John Buchan called Midwinter . It concerns an unsuccessful attempt by a young Highland laird, Alastair Maclean, to raise...

MONDAY Big panic. Some of our candidates in marginal seats have been ringing up asking why they can’t find any nice piccies of Dave standing next to a flag which they can use in...

As nationalities proliferate, the English want their turn, says Rod Liddle — who considers himself British first. St George’s Day and ‘Englishness’ have been partially...

George Bridges on the part played by his great-grandfather, Robert Bridges, in the composition of Parry’s music to Blake’s lyric: too precious, he says, to be hijacked by...

Robert Gore-Langton talks to Sir Donald Sinden about his part in the celebration of Shakespeare’s birthday, chocolates with Gielgud, and making friends with Bosie S hakespeare’s...

When I read that the Queen has cancelled a deferred party at the Ritz intended to mark her diamond wedding anniversary, I wondered who had first come up with the name diamond...

Roger Scruton hails the glorious achievements of the English composers, and their role in idealising the gentleness of the English arcadia — so loathed by our liberal elite T he...

To celebrate St George’s Day and Shakespeare’s birthday, The Spectator asked some leading public figures for their answers to this vexing question. Here are their sometimes...

Blairism may have had its day on this side of the Channel, but Bernard-Henri Lévy says that the English Third Way should be a model to his Gallic comrades F rench Socialists are...

Sir: Rory Sutherland provides at least one reason why admen shouldn’t be allowed to run the show (‘Mad Men are taking over the world’, 12 April): they believe too strongly that...

Sir: How depressing — an attempt by the BBC to give sacred choral music a significant airing on television, torn to shreds by one of the country’s leading choral directors...

Sir: Taki is undoubtedly the master at throwing, metaphorically, one bone to a number of dogs and then seemingly unconcerned at the outcome, moving on. I refer to the little...

Sir: I read with disbelief the profile by Judi Bevan of BAA chairman Sir Nigel Rudd (‘Facing the flak at Terminal 5’, 12 April). How can he say of Willie Walsh, chief executive...

Sir: I read The Spectator from cover to cover and enjoy it very much. However, the only thing I identify with is the Low Life column. So what on earth are you doing sending...

P olitical wisdom coming from Robert Mugabe is hard to swallow. Nonetheless, I think the leathery old butcher might be on to something. ‘Gordon Brown,’ he said last week, ‘is a...

T he Cranach show at the Royal Academy is splendid and great fun. Lucas Cranach was perhaps the fastest painter who ever lived, working with astonishing speed and dexterity,...

Ian Hay Davison draws lessons for the handling of the Northern Rock crisis from his experience as chairman of National Mortgage Bank after its collapse in 1992 T o judge from...

Neil Collins commends the business plan, and the educational ethos, of the New Model School Company S croll through the Multimap website to Bosworth Road, London W10, and it...

A radical, pantheistic nationalist Patrick Marnham D IEGO R IvERA : T HE C OMPLETE M URALS edited by Luis-Martin Lozano and Juan Rafael Coronel Rivera Taschen, £120, pp. 672,...

Simon Baker PILCROW by Adam Mars-Jones Faber, £18.99, pp. 525, ISBN 9780571217038 ✆ £15.19 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 Tb e pilcrow is a typographical symol which looks like...

Clare Asquith T HE L AST O FFICE by Geoffrey Moorhouse Weidenfeld, £25, pp. 283, ISBN 9780297850892 ✆ £20 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 ‘T enebrae’ is the last office, the...

Andrew Taylor T HE S USPiCiONS OF M R W HiCHER OR THE M URDER AT R OAD H iLL H OUSE by Kate Summerscale Bloomsbury, £14.99, pp. 384, ISBN 9780747582151 ✆ £11.99 (plus £2.45...

Archie Bland O liver Tate, the hero of Submarine (Hamish Hamilton, £16.99), is a monologophobic parthenologist. Roughly translated, this means he is interested in finding new...

Lloyd Evans M IKE L EIGH ON M IKE L EIGH edited by Amy Raphael Faber, £16.99, pp. 438, ISBN 978-0571204694 ✆ £13.59 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 M ike Leigh. Ground-breaking...

Nicolas Barker B RITISH C HILDREN ’ S F ICTION IN THE S ECOND W ORLD W AR by Owen Dudley Edwards Edinburgh University Press, £150, pp. 744, ISBN 9780748616510 I must first...

O ne may make a distinction between two types of novel: the self-enclosed and the open. The distinction is not absolute. Such things never are. Genre fiction may merge with what...

Igor Toronyi-Lalic on the power of animation to subvert and propagate ideas T he day after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the American army, on one of its first...

Andrew Lambirth Nigel Hall: Sculpture + Drawing 1965–2008 Yorkshire Sculpture Park, until 8 June A s you drive into the 500 acres of 18th-century parkland which provide the...

Laura Gascoigne Laura Knight at the Theatre Lowry Galleries, until 6 July A scot racegoers whose binoculars wandered from the track in 1936 might have spotted something...

Giannandrea Poesio Entity Random Dance, Sadler’s Wells P aradoxical as it might sound, ballet’s rebirth is happening thanks to (and within) modern and postmodern choreography....

Michael Tanner Ainadamar Birmingham Symphony Hall Der Rosenkavalier Royal Festival Hall I n a series of concerts in Symphony Hall with the perhaps unlikely title Passion from...

Lloyd Evans Wedding Day at the Cro-Magnons Soho The Internationalist Gate The Black and White Ball King’s Head Y ou can tell when a culture has lost its way because it starts...

Deborah Ross In Bruges 18, Nationwide T his film is about two Irish hitmen, Ken and Ray, who are forced to take a sort of minibreak in Bruges (hence the title; hence why this...

Kate Chisholm Y ou might think that the revival of the 1950s radio classic Journey into Space was a desperate move by Radio Four to cash in on the success of the new Dr Who ....

James Delingpole I n those distant days when I used to hang out on Facebook one of my favourite user groups was ‘I hate Catherine Tate and she shouldn’t be in the new series of...

Alan Judd L ucinda Lambton said that driving it was like slicing naked through cream. I’ve never done that (she may have) but when she floored the throttle on the track leading...

Robin Oakley I n Bucharest recently I encountered some Romanian proverbs. ‘Always eat the end of the bread: your mother-in-law will love you,’ said one. And, more to my liking:...

Taki New York T heir memorials were held five days apart, each in one of Manhattan’s most hallowed venues, each one attended by more than 2,000 worshipping fans, both...

Jeremy Clarke K ate Moss was due to walk out of the door and into the arrivals lounge at Terminal 5 at any moment, the photographer said. He was ready with his camera and...

Alex James L eaving the continental land mass behind at Cap de la Hague on a clear day, it’s as if you could throw your voice across the Channel. An off-the-shelf,...

wine is ridiculously expensive, apart from the ridiculously cheap, and you wouldn’t want to drink an awful lot of that, since Diet Coke may be more subtle. The best Californian...

Jonathan Ray returns to the holiday haunt of his youth — Camber Sands M rs Ray had decided on a whim to go and sun herself in Morocco with her mate, Mrs Smith. I was left at...

William Cashmore recalls his family’s annual trip to the Lincolnshire coast T he end of an era this year for the Cashmore family. My mother sold her holiday house in Sutton on...

Lucy Fleming visits the Jamaican home of her uncle, Ian Fleming I t was 1943. The BOAC Stratocruiser was on its way from Jamaica back to London, probably via Nassau, Bermuda and...

Tea and 9 tranquillity Liz Anderson -9 ‘Y ou are going where?’ was the first #-9 question. Closely followed by an incredulous: ‘Madeira? What on earth for? I suppose you...

Thomas Leveritt T he cheap flight boom of the last decade, among its many blessings, has given Europe the gift of the British stag night. Barcelona, Prague, Ljubljana — the...

Fred Lambton F or me, Siena and its surrounding countryside are as close to paradise as this earth gets. The Tuscan hills are full of timeless magic — whichever way you look,...

The sight of Chinese thugs invading the streets of our capital in the name of the Olympic Holy Flame Protection Unit (OHFPU — most people’s thoughts exactly) should banish once...

world’) led me to be accused of elitism by one of the magazine’s online readers. What riled him was my suggestion that, rather than spending £6 billion on speeding up the...

Dear Mary Q. Whenever I have my friends round for dinner, someone’s mobile phone will always ring and they will always answer it at the table. When I extend my next invitation,...

to a cool public party which was arranged through Facebook during the Easter holidays. My friend and I were not allowed to go because we are not 14 yet and our mums said we were...

of sending a copy of the address given at the funeral or memorial service when responding to a letter of condolence. A friend of mine recently responded by sending a...