The Spectator's Notes

I am glad that BBC Radio 4 is producing a series called How Reading Made Us, presented by the subtle, super-literate Times of London columnist James Marriott. I must declare an interest. Roughly 98 percent of my earnings over 45 years have depended on the fact that plenty of people like reading. Now we are

The death of Quentin Deranque is strangely under-reported here. He was a 23-year-old beaten up in Lyon on February 12 by supporters of the main party of the left, Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s France Insoumise (FI). He had been part of a group escorting what the BBC website calls “far-right feminists,” helping them protest against the visit