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Forgive me for being smug, but I saw the Bayeux Tapestry in Bayeux two years ago.It cost about eight euros, there was ha...
08/09/2026

Forgive me for being smug, but I saw the Bayeux Tapestry in Bayeux two years ago.

It cost about eight euros, there was hardly anyone in the museum and I also got to drink a lot of excellent cheap w**e, eat moules à la Normande every night and visit several D-Day sites, for some mechanised slaughter, rather than the stitched 11th century variety.

We shrieked over the vast, blown-up photos of Charles de Gaulle 'liberating' Bayeux, about two weeks after British troops had liberated it, which had been put up ahead of the 80th anniversary.

✍️ Flora Watkins

Article | spectator.com/article/dont-bother-with-the-bayeux-tapestry |

A lovely, intelligent female acquaintance, roughly my own age, keeps telling me to grow up and date women roughly my own...
08/09/2026

A lovely, intelligent female acquaintance, roughly my own age, keeps telling me to grow up and date women roughly my own age. And she has a point.

If I dated women of my cohort, we could discuss the fall of the Berlin Wall, the genius of the first R.E.M. album, and agree that in those days it was easier to get off a sofa. But life, as always, isn't simple. As I say to my female friend: “I wish I could.

But my loins, when they are functional, have different ideas.”

✍️ Sean Thomas

Article | spectator.com/article/lust-cant-be-lectured

I recently found myself forced to endure a picnic. A first-world problem, to be sure. But at Glyndebourne (where I was g...
07/09/2026

I recently found myself forced to endure a picnic. A first-world problem, to be sure. But at Glyndebourne (where I was going with friends to see Tosca, my favourite) there was no restaurant option. It was either picnic, or go hungry.

Four of our party of six arrived at the grounds, to meet our two highly organised and super-punctual friends. They had insisted (because they were driving) on bringing the bulk of the picnic.

All the rest of us had to do was rock up with Tupperware containers of appetisers (plus booze) to add to the fine array arriving by car.

✍️ Julie Bindel

Article | spectator.com/article/how-glyndebourne-won-me-over-to-picnics |

Unsociably early one recent Sunday morning, our retired guide dog nuzzled me awake. Half sleepwalking into the back gard...
07/09/2026

Unsociably early one recent Sunday morning, our retired guide dog nuzzled me awake.

Half sleepwalking into the back garden with her, I greeted the gentle quiet of the morning, the air still cool and breathable, the ongoing daily dose of stifling heat not yet dispensed.

Just the odd pigeon padding about. Well, one odd pigeon. Not one of the usual suspects – bulky, block grey, waddling -here was a delicate, slender creature, striking black and white feathers sleeked across its back, cautiously pecking under the birdseed feeder hanging from an apple tree.

✍️ Melanie Ferbreach

Article | spectator.com/article/the-curious-history-of-pigeon-fancying

Wendell Berry, who died on Monday aged 92, was a man who loved the soil and the soul.Writing from Kentucky, where his fa...
04/09/2026

Wendell Berry, who died on Monday aged 92, was a man who loved the soil and the soul.

Writing from Kentucky, where his family has lived and farmed for generations, Berry built up, over more than sixty years, a corpus of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry – all genres in which he distinguished himself – which, when taken as whole, reveals a profound and coherent philosophy of the earth and how it relates to human community.

✍️ John-Paul Heil

Article | spectator.com/article/wendell-berrys-homecoming

It turns out that this summer's cinematic hero is not Spiderman or even Odysseus, but the French wartime leader Charles ...
04/09/2026

It turns out that this summer's cinematic hero is not Spiderman or even Odysseus, but the French wartime leader Charles de Gaulle who has knocked both Marvel and Homer into a kepi (the French military hat he favoured).

De Gaulle, a two-part, six-hour epic directed by Antonin Baudry has been a surprising hit in France and is in demand from all the major international markets, including those of Latin America, India and China.

The buzz is remarkable for a foreign-language film starring a person who, although a national hero in his homeland, is not a global household name.

✍️ Rosie Millard

Article | spectator.com/article/how-charles-de-gaulle-won-gen-z-over

Like most adults who write their thoughts down regularly, I was raised in a home by a motherwho maintained piles of book...
03/09/2026

Like most adults who write their thoughts down regularly, I was raised in a home by a motherwho maintained piles of books strewn around the house.

There were more books than anyonein our home could read combined, but you could find our favorites open on tabletops anddressers with a pencil, or another book, pinned in them to hold a page.

I slowly absorbed a version of Berry's way of thinking: through reading, through my mom's infatuation with his work, through osmosis as I watched Cartoon Network next to open copies of Hannah Coulter and What are People For?

✍️ Nate Hanrahan

Article | spectator.com/article/wendell-berry-mattered-poetry

We had a terrible row just before you all arrived,' I was saying in a stage whisper over breakfast on Sunday morning, fo...
03/09/2026

We had a terrible row just before you all arrived,' I was saying in a stage whisper over breakfast on Sunday morning, fortified by an iron skillet of bacon and eggs sizzled on the Aga.

We'd reached the toast and second round of coffee stage, and the reason I was whispering was my husband Ivo was still upstairs in bed after a restless night, and I didn't want him to hear my whinge and rev up the row.

✍️ Rachel Johnson

Article | spectator.com/article/my-husband-cant-wield-a-toilet-duck

'Such a lovely place, such a lovely place…You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave!''That dog is an ...
03/09/2026

'Such a lovely place, such a lovely place…You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave!'

'That dog is an accident waiting to happen,' I said. But he didn't care. Whatever Dave does he is 'just doing his job'. 'What is his job?' I often ask. 'Ruining our insurance policy?'

'This could be heaven or this could be hell…' the BB sang. He has a strange personality twist whereby the more something goes awry the more he enjoys himself. 'Any time of year, you can find it here!'

✍️ Melissa Kite

Article | spectator.com/article/my-dogs-an-accident-waiting-to-happen |

Q. My boyfriend's family live in a very pretty Georgian house in the country. The family park their cars at the back of ...
03/09/2026

Q. My boyfriend's family live in a very pretty Georgian house in the country. The family park their cars at the back of the house by the kitchen, where they tend to congregate. Guests park at the front where the door is unlocked occasionally for their arrival.

I am now regularly the only non-family member staying. I know they are of the view that the house looks better without cars in front of it, and my Golf sitting there alone like a mini cab adds little to the elevation. Yet swinging round to the back feels like a land grab.

Article | spectator.com/article/dear-mary-where-should-i-park-my-car-at-my-boyfriends-parents-house

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