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Spectator

‘Well, gentlemen, I think we all fought a good fight’(The Spectator, 16 October 1959)

The week in books

14 June 2013 9:00

This week’s magazine is full to the brim with cracking book reviews. Here is a selection of quotes to whet your appetite. Sam Leith on Modernity Britain, David Kynaston’s rampaging… Continue reading

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Nick Robinson taking part in the annual parliamentary pancake race earlier this year. (ANDREW COWIE/AFP/Getty Images)

Nick Robinson versus the world

29 May 2013 18:54

Nick Robinson came under attack last week after quoting a government source’s description of the Woolwich bombers’ appearance. Writing in tomorrow’s Spectator, Robinson recalls the storm: ‘A glance at Twitter revealed,… Continue reading

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Charles Dickens as a very young man. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

A.D. Harvey in The Spectator – a little tribute to Eric Naiman’s ‘When Dickens met Dostoevsky’

19 April 2013 15:22

Beginning with what he finds to be a rather implausible account of a meeting between Dickens and Dostoevsky, Eric Naiman’s recent essay for the Times Literary Supplement spins out an… Continue reading

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Boris shows KP how it's really done. (PUNIT PARANJPE/AFP/Getty Images)

A birthday challenge to the New Statesman

11 April 2013 16:10

Slight treachery from Boris, who has written a glowing piece on the occasion of the New Statesman’s centenary. While most people will focus on his dissection of the evils of left-wingery… Continue reading

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Situations vacant

11 April 2013 15:28

I hope CoffeeHousers will forgive me for using the blog to advertise jobs, but we have some vacancies: Production Manager, Special Assistant to the Chairman and Researcher. Applications to editor@spectator.co.uk,… Continue reading

37 Comments
'Margaret Thatcher in The Spectator 1975-1990' includes a selection of photos and cartoons from Baroness Thatcher's premiership.

Introducing our first ebook: Margaret Thatcher in The Spectator 1975-1990

10 April 2013 9:17

No publication understood the Thatcher project better than The Spectator. We backed her for the leadership in 1975 when no other national publication would. We understood her opportunities, foibles and… Continue reading

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Where does the death of the three classes leave Downton Abbey? (Photo by Ian Gavan/Getty Images)

The renewal of the class system

3 April 2013 16:30

Fun can be had by playing with the BBC’s new class calculator. The calculator, which was designed with the help of several eminent sociologists, replaces the 3 classes with seven stratifications,… Continue reading

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Arts Montage5

Introducing Spectator Play: Audio and video for what we’ve reviewed this week

2 April 2013 15:34

Did you catch Dr Who over the weekend? Clarissa Tan, who wrote our latest TV column, was surprised that the Dr had to contend with ‘something in the wi-fi’. How’s… Continue reading

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Eric Hobsbawm in January 1976. Photo: Wesley/Keystone/Getty Images

Eric Hobsbawm: a life-long apologist for the Soviet Union

28 March 2013 17:56

In last week’s Spectator, Sam Leith reviewed Eric Hobsawm’s Fractured Times. Our ex-political editor and drink critic Bruce Anderson thinks Leith has missed a basic point about Hobsbawm’s career. Here is Anderson’s riposte in… Continue reading

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There is too much muttering and dissent for the Cameroons' liking. (Photo by Nick Ansel - WPA Pool/Getty Images)

Quietly, Cameron is preparing for his next big fight: the battle for Portsmouth

27 March 2013 18:26

From tomorrow’s Spectator. Downing Street aides nervously run through the symptoms: a flat economy, poor press, leadership mutterings. Then they say, ‘It’s just mid-term blues, isn’t it?’ A second later,… Continue reading

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Trenton Oldfield says that, when the police offered to help him protest, "I can only assume they're putting me in touch with the diving squad".

Exclusive: the police have offered to HELP Trenton Oldfield protest at the 2013 Boat Race.

27 March 2013 12:34

Trenton Oldfield, the Australian who was fished out of the Thames last year when disrupting the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race, is now out of prison and has written a piece for… Continue reading

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Image: Getty

Footsie at the FT

7 March 2013 12:27

Steerpike is back in this week’s magazine. As ever, here is your preview: How much would you stump up for the Economist? Most of us would draw the line at a… Continue reading

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US actor Bruce Willis (C), British actre

Looking after Bruce Willis

4 March 2013 16:23

Mr Steepike recommends this snippet about everyone’s favourite ageing action hero from Olivia Cole’s Hollywood Notebook in this week’s issue of the magazine: ‘To anyone wearing heels after a couple… Continue reading

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Ed Miliband

The Adventures of Ed

22 February 2013 11:06

Steerpike is back in this week’s edition of The Spectator. Here is a sneak preview, as ever: ‘Ed Miliband, meeting Denmark’s prime minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, gobbled up his Danish pastry… Continue reading

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Alan Rusbridger has fallen in love with an over-priced piano. Image: Getty

Alan Rusbridger’s new playmate

24 January 2013 10:59

Steerpike is back in this week’s magazine. As ever, here is your preview: ‘While losses mount at the Guardian, the editor, Alan Rusbridger, has fallen in love. He keeps ordering… Continue reading

5 Comments
You can subscribe to The Spectator in print and digital from just £1 a week.

The Spectator: the case for subscribing

18 January 2013 17:04

For three months now, we have been operating without a paywall throughout the website. It has, as we had hoped, brought thousands more people to The Spectator who have discovered… Continue reading

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This man needs your help. Image: Getty

Can you help Andrew Mitchell?

10 January 2013 16:22

Andrew Mitchell, formerly of DFID, urgently needs Coffee Housers’ help. It seems he won’t believe DFID wastes money, unless he sees actual, concrete examples. Last week, in the magazine, we… Continue reading

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The Penguin brand is among the most enduring in the commercial world. But does that translate to the digital realm? Image: Getty.

The Spectator’s books of 2012, pt 3

31 December 2012 11:00

2012 is done. Here is the final selection (published in the magazine last month)  of the Spectator’s best books of the year. Happy 2013. Susan Hill Spitalfields Life by The… Continue reading

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The Spectator’s books of 2012, pt 2

28 December 2012 11:00

2012 is very nearly finished. Here is a selection (published in the magazine last month) of the Spectator’s best books of the year. Matthew Parris There’s been a fad for… Continue reading

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BOOKS-OF-THE-YEAR-2

The Spectator’s books of 2012, pt 1

27 December 2012 11:00

2012 is drawing to a close. Here is a selection (published in the magazine last month)  of the Spectator’s best books of the year. A.N.Wilson Sidney Chambers and the Shadow… Continue reading

2 Comments