Hitler
Long life
I sometimes try to imagine what it would be like being a political leader. I find this difficult because I…
Ten days in May
‘If the war is lost, then it is of no concern to me if the people perish in it.’ Bruno…
All in the mind
Big event. A new play from Sir Tom. And he tackles one of philosophy’s oldest and crunchiest issues, which varsity…
Plumbing the depths of horror
Concentration camps in Nazi Germany were originally set up in 1933 to terrorise Hitler’s political enemies; as war drew near,…
Great Brittain
Jasper Rees talks to Shirley Williams about the forthcoming screen portrayal of her mother
Marx men
Ian Thomson celebrates the anarchic genius of Groucho and his brothers
Low life
A fruity voice on the train’s announcement system said, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, make sure you have all your belongings, family…
Escape into Moomin world
Tove Jansson’s father was a sculptor specialising in war memorials to the heroes of the White Guard of the Finnish…
Dirty dancing
Vienna’s New Year’s Day concert is still tarnished by its Nazi origins, says Norman Lebrecht
Privates on parade
One day, as a student — or so the story goes — Egon Schiele called on Gustav Klimt, a celebrated…
High life
This is about life up high. Two weeks ago The Spectator had that rapscallion and mischief-maker Peter McKay writing about…
An intellectual in intelligence
Shortly after the war began in September 1939, the branch of the intelligence services called MI8, or the Radio Security…
Hitler’s Valkyrie
Unity Mitford at 100
Politics as Victorian melodrama
The egotistical Churchill may have viewed the second world war as pure theatre, but that was exactly what was needed at the time, says Sam Leith
The stain of luxury
In Midnight in Paris, Woody Allen did a good job of showing how foolish it is to be obsessed by…
The little dictator
No actual birth certificate for Charles Spencer Chaplin has ever been found. The actor himself drew a blank when he…
Plucky little Denmark
Of all the statistics generated by the Holocaust, perhaps some of the most disturbing in the questions they give rise…
The joy of being hated
I know it’s not for everyone, but an online bitch-fight is so bracing
Shame and blame
At the recent Austin Film Festival, at every ruminative panel or round-table discussion I attended, I slapped my copy of…
Ashes to ashes
‘I cannot describe to you what a curious note of brutality a bomb has,’ said one woman who lived through…
Friends before foes
Like Miranda Seymour, the author of this considerable work on Anglo-German relations, I was raised in a Germanophile home. I…
Spreading Brecht’s message
Lloyd Evans talks to Henry Goodman about his role in the playwright’s political allegory
