April 2020

‘We’ve dedicated this issue to the much-discussed but sometimes nebulous subject of “post-liberalism”. The Spectator has always supported liberty and will continue to, but, as Tim Stanley suggests, liberalism may now need saving from itself.’


Books April 1, 2020

Austen’s power

Miss Austen by Gill Hornby reviewed

Brian Martin

Books April 1, 2020

Bluestockings of Bloomsbury

Square Haunting: Five Writers in London Between the Wars by Francesca Wade reviewed

Ariane Bankes

Books April 1, 2020

Cosmopolis

Migrant City: A New History of London by Panikos Panayi reviewed

James Evans

Art April 1, 2020

The Irish question

Sebastian Barry talks about his new play, On Blueberry Hill

Robert Jackman

Books April 1, 2020

On the road again

The Meaning of Travel: Philosophers Abroad by Emily Thomas reviewed

Philip Marsden

Books April 1, 2020

Death in the Cape

Something of Themselves: Kipling, Kingsley, Conan Doyle and the Boer War by Sarah LeFanu reviewed

Andrew Lycett

Books April 1, 2020

Rake’s progress

Threshold by Rob Doyle reviewed

Lee Langley

Art April 1, 2020

The universal cartoon

Is there a single image that fits any caption? Perhaps there is…

Nick Newman

Art April 1, 2020

Conscious coupling

Sex therapy with Anna Karenina

Emily Ferguson

Art April 1, 2020

Tenor badness

Benny Golson, last legend of bebop

Jacob Heilbrunn

Art April 1, 2020

Finger pickin’ good

Banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck has reinvented his instrument and retraced its roots

Dominic Green

Books April 1, 2020

Apocalypse soon

The Decadent Society: How We Became the Victims of Our Own Success by Ross Douthat reviewed

Emina Melonic

Books April 1, 2020

Prince of Europe’s long peace

Metternich: Strategist and Visionary by Wolfram Siemann reviewed

Conrad Black

Art April 1, 2020

Some of the best Austen adaptations are the most unfaithful

Undoubtedly the freshest version of Emma was the one that looks least like it: Clueless

Claire Harman