Craig Raine

1 month ago | thespectator.com | Leyla Sanai |Arabella Byrne |Catriona Olding |Craig Raine

Gabriel Weston is an extraordinary writer. An ENT surgeon who now prefers to carry out excisions of skin cancers, she has found a niche in exploring moral dilemmas in medicine. Her first book, Direct Red (2009), examined such clashes as a patient’s need for empathy and a surgeon’s requirement to be steely. A serious problem at the time was how the punishing schedules of junior doctors made it virtually impossible for them to give patients the attention and compassion they so often needed.

1 month ago | thespectator.com | Daryl McCann |Robin Ashenden |Catriona Olding |Craig Raine

‘He [Donald Trump] sees American leadership as merely a series of real estate transactions.’ That was the verdict of the Democratic senator Elissa Slotkin following the President’s address to Congress. Trump 2.0 does, admittedly, have the appearance of a political version of The Art of the Deal, in which the Donald is prepared to leverage a bilateral compact with every country in the world — so long as the price is right.

1 month ago | thespectator.com | Michael Evans |Catriona Olding |Craig Raine |Juan P. Villasmil

Nuclear weapons are becoming a major issue for Poland. One way or another, both the Polish president and prime minister want their country to host tactical nuclear weapons as a deterrent against President Putin’s Russia. In the latest — but by no means the first — statement on this issue, President Andrzej Duda revealed that he recently discussed stationing American tactical nuclear weapons in Poland with Keith Kellogg, the US special envoy for Ukraine.

1 month ago | thespectator.com | Robin Ashenden |Catriona Olding |Craig Raine |Juan P. Villasmil

Has there been a more cataclysmic year for US-Europe relations than 2025? It began with JD Vance’s “sermon” to EU leaders at the Munich Security Conference last month, in which he berated Western Europe for its policies on immigration and free speech.

1 month ago | thespectator.com | Craig Raine |Catriona Olding |Alexander Larman |Dave Seminara

Liszt’s compositions tend to have descriptive titles — “Wild Chase;” “Dreams of Love” — whereas Chopin avoided titles. Thomas Wentworth Higginson wished titles on Emily Dickinson’s poems, opposed by his fellow editor Mabel Loomis Todd. They didn’t stick. Maybe this is why Dickinson is acclaimed but unread. “I heard a Fly buzz” is easier to remember than 465. We can express this truth by quoting Dickens on the Bible in Little Dorrit: “such hiccupping reference as 2 Ep. Thess. C. iii, v.