menu_open Columnists
Flora Watkins

Flora Watkins

The Spectator

We use cookies to provide some features and experiences in QOSHE

More information  .  Close

Smoking is sexy again

sunday 100

The Spectator

Flora Watkins

Flaming hot / Smoking is sexy again

15.02.2025 100

The Spectator

Flora Watkins

Flaming hot / Smoking is sexy again

Flaming hot /					 													 						Smoking is sexy again
13.02.2025 10

The Spectator

Flora Watkins

Smoking is sexy again

Smoking is sexy again
13.02.2025 10

The Spectator

Flora Watkins

Golden balls / Does anyone actually fancy David Beckham?

Golden balls /					 													 						Does anyone actually fancy David Beckham?
05.02.2025 20

The Spectator

Flora Watkins

Lost England / How The Box of Delights became a Christmas cult classic

At this time of year, switching on the radio to hear the twinkling harp at the start of ‘The First Nowell’ from Hely-Hutchinson’s Carol Symphony...

06.12.2024 20

The Spectator

Flora Watkins

Knit happens / The horror of a Christmas jumper

Mark Darcy’s Christmas jumper has come a long way since it repelled the heroine of Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001) at her mother’s annual New...

03.12.2024 4

The Spectator

Flora Watkins

Who can afford to send Christmas cards any more?

At this time of year I’d usually be writing dozens of Christmas cards, with a Snowball to hand, heavy on the Advocaat. Many would be to people with...

28.11.2024 3

The Spectator

Flora Watkins

Babycham is back!

Babycham, the drink you perhaps last sipped while tapping the ash from a black Sobranie as Sade played on the jukebox, is coming back. Launched in...

21.11.2024 2

The Spectator

Flora Watkins

Party elite / The debauched posh are back

‘The wines were too various: it was neither the quality nor the quantity that was at fault. It was the mixture.’ This is the meet-cute at the...

29.10.2024 1

The Spectator

Flora Watkins

VAT raid / Private schools brought this on themselves

It’s the season to do the rounds of senior schools and my 10-year-old son and I have been jostling through the crowds to glimpse science labs and...

16.10.2024 20

The Spectator

Flora Watkins

It’s time to banish binge-watching

It’s Wednesday, which means my evening is booked up for Slow Horses. The usual protracted regime of children’s tea-bath-bed will be compressed into...

02.10.2024 2

The Spectator

Flora Watkins

It may be too late to save trail hunting

There’s a grumble, often repeated among country folk, that ‘hunting people got hunting banned’. What they mean (I think) is that a combination of...

26.09.2024 60

The Spectator

Flora Watkins

Can school rugby survive safety concerns?

The look on the face of A&E staff was one of horror and disbelief. ‘He’s playing contact rugby – at eight?’ I nodded, my son Gus’s left arm hanging...

05.09.2024 3

The Spectator

Flora Watkins

Love it or loathe it, ragwort is winning

White, lacy cow parsley frothing along the roadside is a familiar sight during the British summer. But 2024 is the first year I can remember when...

08.08.2024 4

The Spectator

Flora Watkins