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Philip Womack

Philip Womack

The Spectator

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Tall story / AI will never write good fiction

Tall story /					 													 						AI will never write good fiction
04.04.2025 8

The Spectator

Philip Womack

Books / Finding your other half in ancient Athens

30.01.2025 8

The Spectator

Philip Womack

Does Starmer hate music?

Sometimes, on slow days, I picture Sir Keir Starmer and our Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, doing the can-can while sticking their fingers...

10.12.2024 10

The Spectator

Philip Womack

Oxford Univeristy / The abuse of titles

Those casting their eye over the candidate list for the chancellorship of Oxford University might be forgiven for believing that social mobility...

11.11.2024 60

The Spectator

Philip Womack

Is it really too much to ask students to read children’s books?

The Shakespeare scholar Sir Jonathan Bate recently claimed that students are struggling to read long books. Depressingly, he’s right. I could have...

24.10.2024 6

The Spectator

Philip Womack

Bring back the stiffy!

The other day, clearing out boxes, I stumbled on a sheaf of invitations from childhood. Decorated with trains and fairies, they are very similar to...

03.10.2024 20

The Spectator

Philip Womack

Restoration / Britain needs more royals

If King Charles wants a ‘slimmed down’, low-calorie royal family, we can thank Queen Victoria for bequeathing us the plus-size version. Responding...

18.09.2024 9

The Spectator

Philip Womack

Tried and tested / In praise of anachronisms

Do you know what an anachronism is? They’re very clear in cultural terms: Shakespeare’s clocks in Julius Caesar, for example. But in historical...

11.09.2024 3

The Spectator

Philip Womack

Keir Starmer is blind to the brilliance of private schools

Despite protestations from every quarter, Sir Keir Starmer will press on with his malicious plan to slap VAT on private school fees. I can only...

05.09.2024 3

The Spectator

Philip Womack

Books / More curious canine incidents: Dogs and Monsters, by Mark Haddon, reviewed

Mark Haddon’s latest collection of short stories, Dogs and Monsters, uses myth and history as springboards into mesmerising accounts of isolation,...

27.08.2024 3

The Spectator

Philip Womack

In defence of the personal statement

Ucas, the organisation in charge of university admissions, has announced that it’s bidding bye-bye to a crucial teen rite of passage. It is killing...

23.07.2024 2

The Spectator

Philip Womack