The Spectator

The Spectator is Britain’s oldest and most influential magazine, with incisive political and economic analysis, unrivalled books and arts reviews, and unmissable lifestyle writing, plus the funniest cartoons. It’s more cocktail party than political party, and we’d love it if you joined us.

All ye faithful

The Spectator

CONTRIBUTORS

PORTRAIT OF THE YEAR

DIARY

Happy new Keir?

THE SPECTATOR'S NOTES

‘I’ve been allergic to AI for a long time’ • Peter Thiel on the dangers of diversity, Trump’s pessimism and the coming Gen Z revolution

Grumpy On Your Birthday

Royal chapter • How Her Majesty is spreading the joy of reading

The best books to give at Christmas — a personal selection by Her Majesty The Queen

‘We’re going for gold’ • Nigel Farage on taking on the Tories, school bullying and admiring Zack Polanski

The year wokery waned

The Great Lie • Don’t listen to those who tell you America is over

COCKTAIL RECIPE: SANTA PANTS

ACTRESS’S NOTEBOOK

The pleasure of not knowing

Object lesson • The comet that could be a spaceship

BAROMETER

Drips’ gallery • Parliament’s 20 most insufferable snivellers

HISTORIAN’S NOTEBOOK

Holy spirits • Protestant vs Catholic ghosts

LETTER FROM WASHINGTON D.C.

What’s wrong with discrimination?

Infinite wisdom • An interview with the physicist David Deutsch

Seasonal jeer • The joy of a miserable literary Christmas

WRITER’S NOTEBOOK

What England’s old folk songs can teach us

Swan song • Jung Chang on what the West gets wrong about China

Beneath a Patio Heater, Ambleside

Power to the plebs

We are all George Eliot’s lighted candle

Glib tidings • The sorry demise of the round robin

PLAYWRIGHT’S NOTEBOOK

Wing and prayer • An angel’s for life, not just for Christmas

A secret life • My lasting friendship with a disgraced MI6 officer

ASHES NOTEBOOK

The Austen Industrial Complex

Trial and error • How Göring almost escaped justice

CHRISTMAS NOTEBOOK

Snobs vs smartphones

Novel uses • The Spectator’s enduring place in fiction

BROADCASTER’S NOTEBOOK

The game’s afoot • Why are we still so obsessed with Sherlock Holmes?

LETTERS

Slipshod • A SHORT STORY BY SARAH PERRY

Word of the year

Why does Netflix never show us business heroes?

A cause worth dying for • Ian Buruma celebrates the extraordinary courage of the few German patriots who dared to resist Hitler

Adam in paradise

The battle of the brows

Table talk

SPOT THE PLAY TITLE

Poem at the Close of the Year

Streets in the sky

The power of the cartographer

Things that go bump in the night

Flesh and blood

More puzzles and conspiracies

Debatable lands

Southern discomfort

Cruel sisters and wicked stepmothers

O come let us adore him • Craig Raine on an adoration of the shepherds with hypnotic presence

Sea fever

Catholic taste

The dying game

Down cemetery road • Richard Bratby on the joy of composers’ graves

Parting shot • Why do artists so seldom address the subject of divorce in their work, asks Digby Warde-Aldam

Bear necessities

Christmas Spice • Michael Hann on what links Jeffrey Dahmer to the Spice Girls

A lazy angel in heaven

Washing up

Still life

Real life

Thai life

Wild life

The turf

Bridge

SPECTATOR WINE

CHRISTMAS QUIZ

Twelve questions for...