Hasn’t Salman Rushdie suffered enough?
The ideology that led to his attack shows no signs of being defeated any time soon
Alexander Larman
Alexander Larman is an author and the US books editor of The Spectator.
Monday
Wednesday
Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning isn’t very good
This series has raised the bar so high for action filmmaking that its faults seem all the more egregious
Kanye West and Arcade Fire: a tale of two cancellations
The idea that someone who has fallen foul of the self-styled moral majority yet can return with genuinely incendiary work remains fascinating
Friday
King Charles did Britain proud this VE Day
From our UK edition
The two years since the coronation of King Charles have been largely disappointing ones for the royal family. A great deal of this was due to factors that none of its senior members could have had any control over – Harry; the Duke of York; cancer. But, in these pages, I have also expressed doubts
Thursday
No memorial to Elizabeth II is better than these monstrosities
From our UK edition
After Elizabeth II died on 8 September 2022, it became of paramount national importance that a suitable memorial was constructed in memory of her and her unparalleled reign. Since it was announced that some of the leading architects in the country would be in competition to come up with something that would act as a
Tuesday
King Charles’s reign has begun poorly
From our UK edition
Today marks the second anniversary of King Charles’s coronation, but celebrations are likely to be rather limited this time around. In truth, it is hard to call the past two years a particular success for the Royal Family. The king has suffered from cancer, for which his debilitating (and, it has to be said, ageing)
A journey through Edinburgh’s gothic past
Underneath its gray, foreboding exterior, it is a joyful and exciting city
Monday
The problem with Trump’s plan to make American movies great again
Ideology and practicality have, once again, run up against one another
Saturday
The revenge of Prince Harry
From our UK edition
It was always unlikely that Prince Harry was going to take his latest and perhaps most humiliating legal defeat with calmness and equanimity, and so it proved swiftly afterwards. Not only did he give a lengthy interview to the BBC in which he alternated between anger and blame and claiming that it was his intention to reconcile with his
Friday
Is this Prince Harry’s most humiliating court defeat yet?
From our UK edition
Well, what did Prince Harry expect? The Duke of Sussex has been involved in plenty of hubristic and pointless things since he decided to step down as a member of the royal family in 2020. But taking the government to court on the grounds that they were refusing to provide security to the levels that
McDonald’s isn’t worth it any more
From our UK edition
When did you last eat at a McDonald’s? If I’d asked this question a decade or so ago, I imagine the answer would probably have been ‘more recently than I’d care to admit’. The Golden Arches were the ultimate fast-food guilty pleasure, where, for considerably less than a tenner, the hungry, hungover or intoxicated could
Thursday
King Charles is the definition of ‘rebellious hope’
From our UK edition
While the world continues to laugh (and, on occasion, groan) at the antics of the Duchess of Sussex, there remains a more serious ongoing issue at the heart of the royal family: the King’s health. As his treatment for cancer stretches on into its second year, with no clear end point in sight, he hosted
Tuesday
Does Meghan Markle believe she’s still a royal highness?
From our UK edition
When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle staged their dramatic departure from the royal family five years ago, there were various conditions attached to their ‘Megxit’. One of the most insistent was that the pair were no longer allowed to use their HRH, or Royal Highness, titles. These were solely reserved for those working royals who
Monday
Are we at Peak Movie Theater?
The numbers don’t lie: they’re as popular as ever
Did Terry Pratchett really write classics?
From our UK edition
The news that Terry Pratchett’s 2002 novel Night Watch has joined the ranks of the Penguin Modern Classics series may seem, to the Pratchett uninitiated, something of an eyebrow-raiser. Penguin has proudly announced that the book ‘which draws on inspirations as far ranging as Victor Hugo and M*A*S*H, is… a profoundly empathetic novel about community, connection and
Saturday
Virginia Giuffre was a victim of careless cruelty
From our UK edition
The death of Virginia Giuffre by suicide at the age of 41 brings to an apparent end one of the grimmest and saddest sagas that has unfolded in public life in the past few decades. Giuffre, who came from a troubled and unhappy background and later became prey for both the billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and
Wednesday
Andor is Star Wars for grown-ups
A promising start to the only good show in a galaxy, far, far away
Putin’s tacky gift to Trump reveals his dark sense of humour
From our UK edition
For all his many faults, Vladimir Putin is not without a jet-black sense of humour. The Russian president has given Donald Trump a painting. Many might have expected this to be a traditional piece of Russian art, depicting some rural scene, or perhaps something more avant-garde, from the contemporary Moscow movement. But no; Putin has
Tuesday
Prince Andrew’s Easter appearance was a royal blunder
From our UK edition
Every Christmas, Easter and other public gathering, the Royal Family are faced with an unfortunate choice: what to do about the two pariahs in their midst? One of them, Prince Harry, is sulkily ensconced in Montecito, and tends mainly to pop up in this country when he’s fighting yet another legal battle. The other, however,
Friday
Toby Carvery has disgraced itself, but not for the first time
From our UK edition
The admission by Toby Carvery that it chopped down an ancient oak tree overlooking one of its pubs has outraged anyone who cares about arboreal preservation, British heritage and decent food and drink – not necessarily in that order. The Mitchells and Butlers group, which owns Toby Carvery, issued a statement saying that the tree
