The Spectator

Friday

The Spectator

From the archives: The loss of the Titanic

From our UK edition

On Sunday, it'll be 100 years to the day since RMS Titanic sank during its maiden voyage. To mark the occasion, here is a piece about the disaster that appeared in The Spectator at the time: The loss of the ‘Titanic’, 20 April 1912 The appalling loss of life in the 'Titanic' and the story of what is in some ways the most terrible wreck in the history of shipping have not only compelled the emotion of the whole world, but have turned both Great Britain and the United States to wide and solemn searchings of heart.

The Spectator

Interview: Ed Vulliamy and the Bosnian Genocide

From our UK edition

In June 1991 while working as a reporter in Rome, Ed Vulliamy received a phone call from his editor at the Guardian asking him to the travel to the neighbouring Balkan states to check out something strange that was happening in the region. Vulliamy spent the next few years immersed in the Bosnian War, the worst carnage to blight European soil since the Third Reich. In August 1992, Vulliamy revealed to the world the horrific concentration camps that were in operation in Omarska and Trnopolje in Bosnia. Vulliamy’s latest book The War is Dead, Long Live The War is a tribute to some of the survivors, who are now scattered across various cities around the world in exile.

Wednesday

The Spectator

Shelf Life: Nigel Havers

From our UK edition

Nigel Havers is in the hotseat this week. He tells us about his intimacy with the Racing Post and his dreams of playing Casanova. You can catch him tonight in Corrie. 1) What are you reading at the moment? Fifty Shades of Grey – EL James 2) As a child, what did you read under the covers? The Racing Post 3) Has a book ever made you cry, and if so which one? The White Hotel – DM Thomas 4) You are about to be put into solitary confinement for a year and allowed to take three books. What would you choose? War & Peace – Leo Tolstoy, The Darling Buds of May – HE Bates, and Nostromo – Joseph Conrad 5) Which literary character would you most like to sleep with?

Sunday

The Spectator

The decline of the spirit

From our UK edition

In celebration of the feast of Easter, we've dug out this profound leader from March 1975, which looks at the ever-evolving relationship of church and state.  The Church, the State and the decline of the spirit, The Spectator, 29 March 1975 Spring is a time of rebirth; yet it is also the time of the death of Christ. It is the time when "Jesus knew that his hour would come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end" (John 13.i). In the Spring and Easter of 1975 there is much evidence of the death and of the departure of the spirit of Christ, but precious little evidence of rebirth or revival, whether in religious affairs or in the affairs of the state.

Saturday

The Spectator

Letters | 7 April 2012

From our UK edition

Generation warsSir: Viva Carol Sarler (‘Battle of the generations’, 31 March)! I don’t think I’ve ever read anything as ridiculous as Daniel Knowles’s babblings, which merit a strong riposte. It is galling to read a 24-year-old simplistically categorise all of we ‘baby-boomers’ (I was born in 1946) as the people responsible for today’s economic woes. Yes, a minuscule number of my generation are indeed responsible for much of the greed and selfishness which manifested itself in banking and government, but I am tired of the lame drivel which lays wholesale blame for our troubles at the doors of everyone in their middle sixties.

The Spectator

Barometer | 7 April 2012

From our UK edition

Sinking feelingsSome conspiracy theories on the sinking of the Titanic: — The disaster was planned by a bunch of Jesuits, Captain Smith of the Titanic included, intent on bumping off Benjamin Guggenheim, Isa Strauss and Jacob Astor, who opposed the establishment of the US Federal Reserve and therefore impeded Jesuit efforts to control the global economy. — The ship that sank was really the Olympic, which had been damaged in a collision with a naval ship. When the Navy refused to pay compensation, the White Star Line scuttled it in an insurance scam. — The ship was sunk by the curse of Amen-ra, an Egyptian high priestess whose mummy was supposedly on board.

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 7 April 2012

From our UK edition

HomeNick Clegg, the deputy Prime Minister, said he could not support as they stood government plans to hold in camera civil court cases involving secret intelligence. The government also proposed changing the law to allow it to monitor the telephone calls, emails, texts and visits to websites of everyone in the country. UK Biobank began making available to researchers information on 500,000 volunteer patients in the National Health Service. The government said it had accepted ‘virtually all’ of the 28 recommendations in a report commissioned from Mary Portas on the rejuvenation of high streets, including reduced charges for parking.