Mark Mason

3 weeks ago | spectator.co.uk | Mark Mason

How do you walk away from greatness? How do you vacate the position of being literally the best person in the world at something? Most of us never have to face this challenge, but at some point Ronnie O’Sullivan will. In Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry he has contrasting examples of how to tackle it. I’d argue that Davis’s approach is by far the better – and indeed teaches all of us about life and the way it should be lived. ‘If he plays his best, he wins.

1 month ago | spectator.co.uk | Mark Mason

I’m hiding from something I used to love: the news. It’s a common tendency these days – Loyd Grossman noted it in his Spectator diary recently, calling himself a ‘nonewsnik… unable to deal with a daily diet of misery and despair’. I understand the need to escape the depressing effects of war and economic turmoil. That’s part of my own reasoning too. But my main point is slightly different: it’s not so much that the news is depressing, it’s that the news is boring. We’ve been here before.

2 months ago | thespectator.com | Alexander Larman |Byron’s Women |Douglas Murray |Mark Mason

The recent fires in California have had many tragic effects. Many have lost their homes, possessions and livelihoods, and it has been a stark reminder that even the wealthy and privileged are not immune from a truly awful, life-changing event.

Jan 19, 2025 | thespectator.com | Kate Andrews |Freddy Gray |Juan P. Villasmil |Mark Mason

Millions of Americans will have tried to follow their routine this morning: turn off the alarm, grab the phone, start to scroll.

Jan 18, 2025 | thespectator.com | Freddy Gray |Toby Young |Juan P. Villasmil |Mark Mason

Washington, DCOn your marks, get set, executive orders. Donald Trump will be sworn back into office on Monday, from inside the Capitol Rotunda, as Ronald Reagan was in 1985. Cold weather is the official reason for moving the ceremony from outside to in, and it seems true — the seventy-eight-year-old president-elect may wish to avoid the fate of his predecessor William Henry Harrison — although there’s plenty of speculation that security is the real factor.