Cold comfort / Italy is most beautiful in winter

28.01.2025 10

Robin Ashenden

Holocaust Remembrance Day isn’t enough

27.01.2025 20

Robin Ashenden

Double cross / Britain’s unending fascination with the Cambridge spies

18.01.2025 10

Robin Ashenden

Britain’s unending fascination with the Cambridge spies

18.01.2025 10

Robin Ashenden

Life is not a piece of cake

11.01.2025 10

Robin Ashenden

The triumph of When Harry Met Sally

Look at any list of the ‘greatest ever romcoms’ and you’ll find When Harry Met Sally near the top of the list, if not heading it. This 1989 movie,...

28.12.2024 5

Robin Ashenden

Life lessons, from Orwell to Didion

Anyone without time to read an author’s long works (most of us these days) might want to consider simply going to the top of the tree and reading...

26.12.2024 2

Robin Ashenden

Keir Starmer, the Christmas Grinch

If someone were to read the runes, this first Labour Christmas would not augur well. Not only have we had Keir Starmer’s excruciating...

23.12.2024 5

Robin Ashenden

Cancel culture / In defence of Ben Judah

Readers of The Spectator may remember the 2021 defenestration of author and teacher Kate Clanchy, which saw her part company with her publisher Pan...

16.12.2024 6

Robin Ashenden

Only another Bill Clinton can save the Democrats now

In the weeks since Donald Trump won the US election, Democrat supporters, amidst much gnashing of teeth, have offered up a range of post-mortems....

15.12.2024 6

Robin Ashenden

My Desert Island Discs

Withnail and I’s Uncle Monty found it crushing to realise that he was never going to be given the part of Hamlet – ‘I shall never play the Dane!’ –...

13.12.2024 5

Robin Ashenden

The pundits’ attacks on farmers would make Alan Partridge blush

In the weeks since Rachel Reeves’s Budget and its shock attack on agricultural property relief, we’ve seen various armchair pundits pontificate on...

05.12.2024 3

Robin Ashenden

Things can only get worse for Keir Starmer

Finally a date has been set – 29 January 2025 – for the government to debate points posed by the now infamous ‘Call a General Election’...

03.12.2024 20

Robin Ashenden

Is it time to ban boxing?

This year, as almost every year, there have been calls for a complete ban on boxing. Two fighters, Ardi Ndembo and Sherif Lawal, have died as a...

16.11.2024 3

Robin Ashenden

Kemi Badenoch’s early troubles are no reason to despair

A consensus seems to be forming, with unreasonable speed, that Kemi Badenoch isn’t exactly smashing it at Prime Minister’s Questions. Much of the...

15.11.2024 30

Robin Ashenden

Charisma code / The curse of cool

One of the freedoms of later life, if you’re not Keith Richards, is that you no longer have to worry about being cool. Cool, far more than money,...

05.11.2024 2

Robin Ashenden

What Gen Z need to know about the 1990s

‘Nothing,’ said Vladimir Nabokov, ‘revives the past so completely as a smell that was once associated with it’. If smell is the most evocative...

03.11.2024 9

Robin Ashenden

Nightmarish / I fear for Georgia’s future

Following this weekend’s fraughtly awaited election ‘results’ in Georgia – as important for the country’s direction as any since the end of...

28.10.2024 3

Robin Ashenden

John le Carré and the perils of resurrecting Smiley

Next week, a new novel comes out featuring George Smiley, John le Carré’s meek, mild, fiercely intelligent Cold War spymaster. Karla’s...

20.10.2024 3

Robin Ashenden

London is a great Eastern European city

When, after three years of living in Eastern Europe, I came back to the UK, I found myself acutely nostalgic for the post-communist world. Life...

09.10.2024 2

Robin Ashenden

The 1990s were Britain’s sunset years

A myth seems to be developing about the 1990s. In a recent programme on Disney Plus called In Vogue: The 90s, a series of talking heads rhapsodise...

06.10.2024 4

Robin Ashenden

James Bond is past his best

Is James Bond looking knackered, or is it just me? At 54, I’m at an age where I’ve given up on a lot of things. I lost interest in Question Time...

28.09.2024 2

Robin Ashenden

Condensed classics / The best short novels for screen-addled minds

Who honestly has the time or inclination to finish long novels these days? I yearn for a serene period when I can read The Red and the Black or The...

23.09.2024 2

Robin Ashenden

Tinker Tailor / Why isn’t Gary Oldman playing Smiley again?

Following the huge success of the 2011 film Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – from the book of the same name by John le Carré – there was much talk of a...

21.09.2024 6

Robin Ashenden

Oasis obsessives should broaden their horizons

For those of us not into Oasis in the 90s, the past month’s mania over their reunion has been baffling. Songs like ‘Wonderwall’ and ‘Don’t...

15.09.2024 7

Robin Ashenden

A Shropshire dad / The timeless beauty of the county’s canals

Shropshire is a strange county, little known by those beyond its border, and perhaps that’s part of its appeal. It not only has no coastline, but...

04.09.2024 1

Robin Ashenden

A tribute to the glorious heyday of smoking

When the revolting news broke that Keir Starmer – whingeing lovechild of Oliver Cromwell and Captain Mainwaring – could be about to ban smoking in...

03.09.2024 2

Robin Ashenden

Leaked photos / J.D. Vance was a weird teenager. So were most of us

Two photos from the youth of Republican vice-presidential candidate J.D. Vance have recently surfaced and are filling his opponents with glee. In...

20.08.2024 6

Robin Ashenden

The enduring wisdom of Bill Brand

If Labour is taking us back to the 1970s – and the recent strike-secured pay rises and mass rage about immigration suggest more than a nodding...

11.08.2024 1

Robin Ashenden

Are the Great Novels worth it?

To finish or not to finish? The dilemma of whether to give up on books we aren’t enjoying or plough on to the end lasts a lifetime, but as we grow...

07.08.2024 2

Robin Ashenden

Kemi Badenoch’s time has come

The Tories are about to choose a leader once more, and this time cannot allow themselves any self-indulgence. In 2022, they sidelined Kemi Badenoch...

03.08.2024 2

Robin Ashenden

On goulash / I miss the food of Eastern Europe

When you live abroad for long periods of time, you get accustomed to certain foods which, returning home, you can’t find anywhere, and the sense of...

22.07.2024 10

Robin Ashenden

Books / The rape of Ukraine continues while the world’s sympathies move on

‘Write and record’ was the dying instruction of the historian Simon Dubnow – shot by Nazis in the Riga ghetto – and two books recently...

19.07.2024 2

Categories

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Popular

Cold comfort / Italy is most beautiful in winter

Robin Ashenden

Holocaust Remembrance Day isn’t enough

Robin Ashenden

Double cross / Britain’s unending fascination with the Cambridge spies

Robin Ashenden

Britain’s unending fascination with the Cambridge spies

Robin Ashenden

Life is not a piece of cake

Robin Ashenden

The triumph of When Harry Met Sally

Robin Ashenden

Life lessons, from Orwell to Didion

Robin Ashenden

Keir Starmer, the Christmas Grinch

Robin Ashenden

Cancel culture / In defence of Ben Judah

Robin Ashenden

Only another Bill Clinton can save the Democrats now

Robin Ashenden

My Desert Island Discs

Robin Ashenden

The pundits’ attacks on farmers would make Alan Partridge blush

Robin Ashenden

Things can only get worse for Keir Starmer

Robin Ashenden

Is it time to ban boxing?

Robin Ashenden

Kemi Badenoch’s early troubles are no reason to despair

Robin Ashenden

Charisma code / The curse of cool

Robin Ashenden

What Gen Z need to know about the 1990s

Robin Ashenden

Nightmarish / I fear for Georgia’s future

Robin Ashenden

John le Carré and the perils of resurrecting Smiley

Robin Ashenden

London is a great Eastern European city

Robin Ashenden

The 1990s were Britain’s sunset years

Robin Ashenden

James Bond is past his best

Robin Ashenden

Condensed classics / The best short novels for screen-addled minds

Robin Ashenden

Tinker Tailor / Why isn’t Gary Oldman playing Smiley again?

Robin Ashenden

Oasis obsessives should broaden their horizons

Robin Ashenden

A Shropshire dad / The timeless beauty of the county’s canals

Robin Ashenden

A tribute to the glorious heyday of smoking

Robin Ashenden

Leaked photos / J.D. Vance was a weird teenager. So were most of us

Robin Ashenden

The enduring wisdom of Bill Brand

Robin Ashenden

Are the Great Novels worth it?

Robin Ashenden

Kemi Badenoch’s time has come

Robin Ashenden

On goulash / I miss the food of Eastern Europe

Robin Ashenden

Books / The rape of Ukraine continues while the world’s sympathies move on

Robin Ashenden