December 2019 Issue

FROM THE MAGAZINE

December 2019

‘A Democratic party a little less obsessed with digging around for presidential conspiracies and a little more eager to call out Trump for bad housekeeping might have a better chance of defeating him in 2020.’

Art

Christmas crackers: the tragic soul of Natalie Cole

Natalie Cole had an instant pocket pop career. Her family, she said, were like ‘the black Kennedys’; and look how the Kennedys turned out

By Luke Haines

From the Magazine

Books

The boy on the hillside

A short story by Susan Hill

By Susan Hill

From the Magazine

Books

‘I was a tortured, obviously brilliant child’

James Ellroy talks drugs, God and his father’s penis

By Sam Leith

From the Magazine

Art

Star Wars: the force a-weakens

In space, no one can hear you yawn

By Ben Sixsmith

From the Magazine

Art

The call of the wild

Pod help you in the wilderness

By Emily Ferguson

From the Magazine

Art

Ave, Maria Grinberg

How the Soviets stopped you from hearing her Beethoven piano sonatas

By Damian Thompson

From the Magazine

Books

The Spectator’s Books of the Year 2019

Spectator contributors choose their favorite titles of 2019

By The Spectator

From the Magazine

Books

The haunting of Russell Kirk

The founding father of 20th-century American conservatism was also a connoisseur of the supernatural and a bestselling novelist

By James Panero

From the Magazine

Books

We are all Greta now

A lot of children’s literature today is horribly right-on

By Melanie McDonagh

From the Magazine

Art

Leonardo da Virtual

Mass tourism has overwhelmed our major museums. Could virtual reality be the solution?

By Dominic Green

From the Magazine

Podcasts

The pod delusion

Why I hate all podcasts — even the ones I like

By Matt Labash

From the Magazine

Art

Payton’s place

Netflix’s The Politician is satire without purpose

By James Delingpole

From the Magazine