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Philip Womack

Philip Womack

The Spectator

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The agony of Make Tax Digital

 For decades, I calculated my annual tax return using the same method; as dull and reliable as a shire horse. Over a few consecutive days, mired in...

12.08.2026 10

The Spectator

Philip Womack

Books / Bringing Homer into the home: how the Iliad and Odyssey became widely available

Homer’s ghost is particularly busy, popping up in the dreams of pretty much every poet going. In fact if you are a poet and haven’t been visited...

10.08.2026 10

The Spectator

Philip Womack

Bringing Homer into the home: how the Iliad and Odyssey became widely available

Homer’s ghost is particularly busy, popping up in the dreams of pretty much every poet going. In fact if you are a poet and haven’t been visited...

10.08.2026 10

The Spectator

Philip Womack

It’s madness to sit exams on screens

There is, says Colin Hughes, who is the head of the exam board AQA, no downside to switching pupils from written exams into a gleaming modern utopia...

04.08.2026 10

The Spectator

Philip Womack

Books / Bringing Homer into the home: how the Iliad and Odyssey became widely available

Homer’s ghost is particularly busy, popping up in the dreams of pretty much every poet going. In fact if you are a poet and haven’t been visited...

25.07.2026 10

The Spectator

Philip Womack

Would you let an app read a book for you?

Some time ago, I had a furious conversation with a tech bro, which played out something along these lines: ‘How cool would it be’, said the tech...

15.06.2026 30

The Spectator

Philip Womack

What should gents wear in the heat?

At the news that Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) will allow members to remove their jackets thanks to soaring temperatures, I wept a tiny tear. That...

27.05.2026 30

The Spectator

Philip Womack

In praise of the paperback

Epsom betrays the truth about Britain’s politicised police Olly Robbins sacked over Mandelson scandal What’s the point of the Sussexes’...

17.04.2026 30

The Spectator

Philip Womack

Don't count out hereditary peers just yet

The ermines have been mothballed; the coronets stowed away. The United Kingdom has, at last, thrown out the hereditary peers from Parliament. This...

16.03.2026 40

The Spectator

Philip Womack

School choir music is in peril

You’d be hard pressed to find a more continuous strand in British culture than the chorister. They’ve been warbling in Westminster Abbey since the...

12.03.2026 30

The Spectator

Philip Womack

Shakespeare isn’t difficult

24.12.2025 40

The Spectator

Philip Womack

Everyone has forgotten party etiquette

23.12.2025 40

The Spectator

Philip Womack

No, Christmas isn’t pagan

16.12.2025 30

The Spectator

Philip Womack

Feasts of falsehood / No, Christmas isn’t pagan

15.12.2025 40

The Spectator

Philip Womack

Class apart / What makes a gentleman?

06.10.2025 30

The Spectator

Philip Womack

Dear sir... / Goodbye to the letters of introduction

19.08.2025 30

The Spectator

Philip Womack

Book smart / The tragic decline of children’s literature

12.08.2025 50

The Spectator

Philip Womack

The tragic decline of children’s literature

07.08.2025 50

The Spectator

Philip Womack

The harrowing true story behind Barry Lyndon

01.08.2025 50

The Spectator

Philip Womack

Pixels are replacing paper

04.07.2025 30

The Spectator

Philip Womack

Cornered / I’m pseudy and proud

18.06.2025 30

The Spectator

Philip Womack

Literal disaster / We’re losing the ability to read

02.06.2025 40

The Spectator

Philip Womack