Sean Thomas is a bestselling author. He tweets from @thomasknox.
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First things first, as this is an article about toilets, we need to establish if the word ‘toilet’ is an acceptable word. Here at The Spectator, editorial opinion on this crucial point is deeply divided. Some have expressed a preference for ‘bog’. Others opt for ‘john’, ‘jakes’, or lavatory. We also got votes for ‘dunny’, restroom, WC, outhouse, ‘chugger’,
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For nearly all my adult life, I’ve lived within walking distance of Primrose Hill. Indeed, for the last two decades, I’ve lived close enough that my regular evening ritual – travel, health, and global plagues permitting – involves a short stroll down Regent’s Park Road, then a stiff walk up the sacred hill itself, to take
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There are plenty of reasons to be depressed about Britain right now. From our government, which consists mainly of sixth-formers with special needs, to our sporting teams, which conspire to lose across the world. And polls show this depression is real: in a poll on ‘national happiness’ in different countries Britain has plunged from 13th place to 29th, in only a
Homo sapiens, as a species, is programmed to anticipate death, disaster and apocalypse. The monster in the mere, the ague that comes from the east, the flood that wipes out all living creatures outside the Ark. The reason children – and adults in horror movies – are scared of the dark is because darkness is
There are many reasons to admire America, and also a few reasons to disapprove. On the plus side there is free speech, the right to protect oneself, a relatively dynamic economy and 198 versions of beef jerky. On the downside, an inconsistent attitude to turning right at lights, too much fructose and the possibility of
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I’ve got a new thriller out this week, under my pen name of S.K. Tremayne. I am pleased with the book, and I believe it’s entertaining. I am also aware that, in a tough and competitive market, that may not be enough for it to succeed. I am even more aware that readers might decide
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20 min listen
What did you most recently use Artificial Intelligence for? For most people, the answer would be as a glorified search function, using services like Chat GPT to ask questions, draft text and even produce images – like the Chat GPT generated thumbnail image for this episode. The capability of AI far exceeds this most though.
Depending on where you stand on AI, 30 January 2026 will go down in history for one of two things. Either it is the day when the AI singularity really began and the robots became conscious – or the day when it was revealed that far too many people are credulous about AI and were
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28 min listen
On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Sean Thomas explains how an AI-generated goth girl became a nationalist icon; Mary Killen argues we should all regret the loss of the landline; Owen Matthews says that banning Russian art only weakens Ukraine; and finally, Patrick Kidd makes the case for letting children experience alcohol. Produced and presented by
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It has been obvious for some time that there are basic concepts that the liberal British Establishment simply does not understand. Like money. Or tax. Or business. Or going to the pub. Or the fundamental value of free speech. Well, now we can add a whole new roster of more baroque concepts to this list:
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As Donald Trump claims Nato forces stayed ‘a little off the front lines’ in Afghanistan, and the Great Greenland Crisis rumbles on, and off, and on again, one thing is clear: Europe keeps threatening to ‘stand up to America’ and every time it does, the effect is roughly equivalent to a damp baguette waved in
I am writing this on the 17th floor of the Novotel Sukhumvit, on Soi 4, aka “Soi Nana,” in Khlong Toei, Bangkok. For anyone that knows the Big Mango, they’ve already guessed where I am, psychogeographically: from that tell-tale word “Nana.” For those still in the dark, I am on the rude, ribald, rambunctious street
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32 min listen
On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Mickey Down, co-creator of Industry, reads his diary for the week; Charlie Gammell argues that US intervention could push Iran into civil war and terrorism – warning that there are more possibilities than just revolution or regime survival; false dichotomy at the heart of; Sean Thomas bemoans the bittersweet liberation
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One of the guilty pleasures of the patriotic British travel writer is encountering yet another country, city or island that we invaded, occupied, colonised or just menaced into submission with a couple of gunboats. For example, did you know we casually took out Uruguay back in the day? It’s true – we demolished the walls
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First off, let me say: I’m a London property owner. It’s a pretty little flat, in a pleasant corner of the capital. Nothing special, but quite desirable. Therefore, I am not writing this article in a gleeful spirit of provincial schadenfreude, rather, I write it with a grim sense of metropolitan foreboding. I had kind
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I’m not sure when my libido first began to decline. It was probably during the pandemic, so it went unnoticed – like much else. Given that I was stuck indoors, newly divorced, in a one-bed flat, with no garden, and only allowed out to walk for one hour a day in the driving sleet, I
If there is one safe prediction we can make about 2026, it is this: public debate and global news will be dominated by artificial intelligence and the anxieties that surround it. And near the top of that swelling list of worries will be “AI porn” – the fateful collision between ever more accomplished image-making machines
I can remember when I first realised that something strange was happening to white men in Hollywood. It was around 2014, and my younger colleagues in LA – often British writers, directors and actors who had moved to California to ‘make it’ – began reporting, anecdotally, that their work was disappearing. By that I don’t
I am standing inside perhaps the most sophisticated stadium ever built: a magnificent, latticed half-dome of white steel and trillion-pixel megascreens, bent over a football pitch so green it looks iced. And I am watching my least favorite sport on Earth: American football. As I guzzle citrus beer, the players take their 683rd strategic break
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It feels, pleasingly, like a scene from a cerebral James Bond film, or perhaps an episode of Slow Horses. I am in a shadowy corner of a plush, buzzy Soho members’ bar. A mild December twilight is falling over London. Across the table from me sits an old acquaintance, a senior English barrister, greying, quietly handsome, in
