A trip to Fortnum’s turned me into an expert present-giver
America has no equivalent to Fortnum’s. The best we had in New York City was Dean & DeLuca (RIP)
Spectator Life
An intelligent mix of culture, style, travel, food and property, as well as where to go and what to see.
How I won over a Scrooge-like New Yorker
‘Christmas is not about expensive presents in England,’ I explained
December 11, 2025
Will FIFA cancel its LGBTQ Pride match for Iran and Egypt?
Teams from two Islamic countries playing in one of America’s wokest cities on the anniversary of Stonewall – what could go wrong?
December 2, 2025
The National Football League goes international
Inside Roger Goodell’s bid for global power
How to make an unforgettable Christmas dinner
The pièce de résistance was roast goose with gravy and potatoes in goose fat
Why winter is the best time for a barbecue
Summer is absolutely the wrong time to get out the smoker
When it comes to bourbon, provenance matters
The distillers and distributors must be Kentucky-based and preferably family owned and operated
Inside the gruesome world of the ‘human safari’
But what would you do if there was no risk of being caught? Some people want to kill
December 1, 2025
Lane Kiffin did the right thing
He’s been labeled a ‘villain’ for doing what any reasonable person would do
November 25, 2025
Charleston notebook: following an English country band through the Holy City
Exploring the charms of Chucktown
November 18, 2025
Anne of Green Gables perfected the kitchen mishap
Despite the scarring incidents, people eat like kings in the Anne series
The tragedy of France’s palm oil croissants
These ersatz pastries are sold without taste or conscience
Franco Zeffirelli’s slice of paradise in Positano
Villa Treville retains the director’s sense of chutzpah and style
November 17, 2025
Robert De Niro has a serious case of Trump envy
The past few weeks has seen the pleasing spectacle of beautiful female film stars (Sydney Sweeney, Keira Knightley – even the previous Trump Derangement Syndrome sufferer Jennifer Lawrence, who once said that an orange victory would be ‘the end of the world’) refusing to toe the accepted Hollywood line on politics, be it by not kowtowing
November 13, 2025
Against flakes
A new drinks-party-shirking method has taken hold in British society. I call it ‘Lastminute.non’. Previously, the way of not going to someone’s party was to write a polite message of refusal at least a week in advance, giving the host or hostess ample time to absorb the sad but inevitable fact that various friends would
November 7, 2025
Live-translation AirPods are the future
I have arrived in Naples, Italy, after an arduous flight from a chaotic London Gatwick Airport. I’m settled in a glamorous top-floor apartment in the Quartieri Spagnoli – the romantic old ‘Spanish Quarter’ – where Vespas fizz over cobbles and laundry hangs across alleys like flags of endless surrender. Most importantly, I’m clutching my Apple
Zohran Mamdani’s policies will make restaurants bland and expensive
There’s no shortage of catastrophic predictions for New York under Zohran Mamdani’s leadership. While the city probably won’t see breadlines, the wildly expensive, exhaustingly derivative restaurants that dominate its food scene are likely to become more dominant. Mamdani’s big pledge on food is to ‘make halal eight bucks again’. But it’s a ‘false promise’ of
November 6, 2025
The medical emergency in the Oval Office
An attendee collapsed as Trump made a statement on fat jabs
November 5, 2025
Where can I get some meth?
Welcome to the People’s Republic of Santa Monica
Go to Cicoria for the food, stay for the opera
The Royal Ballet and Opera’s new restuarant should be a destination, whether or not Tristan und Isolde whets your appetite
Uzbekistan by high-speed rail
It is a place of dreams and deceptions
November 4, 2025
It pays to be a bad college-football coach
A talent arms race is driving up the coaches’ price tags – even when those coaches are horrible
October 28, 2025
Autopen report: Biden was a puppet president
The House Oversight Committee found Biden was ‘incapable of self-functioning’
October 27, 2025
Trump’s Pfizer deal will increase drug costs
Former Trump White House economist warns patients will suffer
October 21, 2025
‘Gender-affirming care’ is never justified
The scale of the problem is no longer a matter of opinion; it’s a number
When did restaurants get so boring?
A world that appears ‘diverse’ in its mosaic of faces and flags has become increasingly uniform in its cuisines
Why I haven’t created a tomato-cannabis hybrid
I’m known as a ‘budding plant scientist’ in the village, but homemade GMOs?
Can American restaurants thrive in Britain?
‘I’m expecting to see a savage Carbone review anytime soon’
In awe of Fuji-san
Glamping in the foothills of the iconic volcano that won’t let you out of her sight