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John Sturgis

John Sturgis

The Spectator

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Were Boney M the weirdest pop act of all time?

19.12.2024 10

The Spectator

John Sturgis

The tragedy of Anne Boleyn’s childhood home

Hever Castle was the childhood home of Anne Boleyn and played a not insignificant part in the Henry VIII story. The smitten despot, already planning...

09.12.2024 20

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Unworthy farm / Glastonbury and the problems of youth

On Sunday, I was in deepest Wales, listening to birdsong, braying donkeys and a demented cockerel, but instead of getting away from it all I was...

22.11.2024 10

The Spectator

John Sturgis

World exclusive / The royal love triangle that led to Montecito

Were The Duke and Duchess of Sussex to leave their mansion in Montecito, California, and head a couple of miles across town, to Toro Canyon, they...

05.11.2024 10

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Disney’s betrayal of The Jungle Book

When Sven-Göran Eriksson’s coffin was being paraded through the streets of his home town, ahead of his funeral, it was followed by a marching jazz...

30.09.2024 10

The Spectator

John Sturgis

High drama / I’m glad my wife had a medical emergency at sea

My wife had already been given morphine and they had just topped her up with ketamine. She was now so high she didn’t seem even to know where she...

10.09.2024 10

The Spectator

John Sturgis

In defence of airport pints

It is hard to think of anyone in aviation history who has done more to degrade the passenger experience of air travel than the man who has run Ryanair...

29.08.2024 40

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Knebworth / I was an Oasis fan. Then I grew up

On the evening of 10 August 1996, I found myself lost in the grounds of a stately home in Hertfordshire, and very, very drunk. Everywhere I turned,...

27.08.2024 20

The Spectator

John Sturgis

RIP / Sven-Goran Eriksson: 1948-2024

The former England football manager Sven-Goran Eriksson died today. He had terminal cancer and said he expected to be dead before the year was out. In...

26.08.2024 20

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Sell outs / How the Premier League abandoned its fans

It’s become a regular occurrence: a friend or a friend-of-a-friend is visiting London, wants to go to a football game and messages asking for help...

14.08.2024 10

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Narrow escape / My canalboat obsession is causing me trouble

We had steered our narrowboat into the lock at Swineford on the navigable section of the Bristol Avon before 8 a.m., heading upstream, back towards...

24.07.2024 10

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Feelin’ shirty / In defence of the vest

I have been fond of vests ever since those plain white cotton ones we wore for primary school athletics in the long ago and mythically hot summers of...

17.07.2024 20

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Proper football fans don’t chuck pints

Many previous football tournaments have had a signature motif: the Mexican wave in 1986, the irritating vuvuzelas in South Africa 2010, the firework...

14.07.2024 20

The Spectator

John Sturgis

My match clash tactics

Stuttering England aside, it’s been a great Euros so far: the comedy of Scotland, the tragedy of Croatia, the miracle of Georgia. Now that the...

29.06.2024 10

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Road to nowhere / I am the victim of a bureaucratic injustice

I live north of the river in London and my parents live south of it, in the Tunbridge Wells. I have long been a registered user of the Dartford...

28.06.2024 10

The Spectator

John Sturgis

The England squad is too sensitive

Perhaps Gareth Southgate’s greatest achievement at the England helm has been to inculcate a sense of togetherness in his squads. This had been...

20.06.2024 20

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Tosh and Becks / The Beckham rumour that refuses to die

I first heard it in the spring of 1999 from a bloke who was sitting behind me at a West Ham game. It concerned David Beckham and Victoria Adams of...

31.05.2024 20

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Low Life / Our strange relationship with columnists

I’ve been reading newspapers since I was a teenager and have become strangely familiar with those who write about their lives, even though I’ve...

20.05.2024 30

The Spectator

John Sturgis

There is nothing common about the northern lights

It was 10.45pm and our film had just finished. I checked my phone and saw a friend claiming he had just seen the northern lights — in Wembley. It...

11.05.2024 30

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Football / The stupidity of the ex-pro pundits

It was the most dramatic moment of the whole football season. Having trailed 3-0 to the millionaires of Manchester United in their FA Cup semi-final,...

26.04.2024 10

The Spectator

John Sturgis

In praise of peculiar names

It began, as these things often do, in the Births, Deaths and Marriages column of the Times. ‘On 29th February, to Olivia von Wulffen and Rupert...

27.03.2024 6

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Love Desert Island Discs? Try this

In its primary Sunday morning slot, Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4 finishes at noon. This is the cue for radio cognoscenti to turn the digital...

19.03.2024 9

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Desert Island Discs / Could the BBC sink it?

Desert Island Discs is 80 years old and to celebrate this milestone the BBC has planned an event unprecedented in the show’s long history. It is...

06.03.2024 10

The Spectator

John Sturgis

The tyranny of the 20mph limit

I was still thinking about the film when I came out of the cinema and got into my car. I can’t have exceeded 28mph. On this wide, well-lit, almost...

13.02.2024 10

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Pure of hart / Have I been cursed by a white deer?

It was standing completely still, about 40 yards away, partially obscured by a clump of hazel: a pure white deer. It looked almost iridescent in the...

05.02.2024 10

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Glenn Hoddle and the birth of cancel culture

Most England managers lose their jobs over bad results: Roy Hodgson was sacked after being humiliated by Iceland, Graham Taylor for losing a must-win...

30.01.2024 20

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Sven-Goran Eriksson / How he made English football

The former England football manager Sven-Goran Eriksson has terminal cancer, he says he expects to be dead before the year is out. In an age when such...

23.01.2024 10

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Englishness / Why are writers obsessed with Tunbridge Wells?

It’s just a moderately sized town in Kent, but Tunbridge Wells seems to have a literary status disproportionate to its size. And, perhaps as a...

19.01.2024 10

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Deluge / Ten novels about flooding

Shropshire was named this week as an unlikely entrant in the top ten global dream travel destinations for 2024 – alongside more predictable...

10.01.2024 9

The Spectator

John Sturgis

The strange return of Cilla Black

She was an unlikely contender for fame from the outset, with a pub singer voice and a nose so  prominent she would later have it surgically...

03.01.2024 10

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Post-Christmas slump / How to survive it

Elizabeth David was a cookery writer who led the British palate away from the grim days of stodgy, post-war rationing towards the adoption of a...

27.12.2023 20

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Fairytale of the Duke of York: Shane MacGowan’s life in pubs

Shane MacGowan spent much of his life in pubs, working in them, drinking in them, performing in them – even living in a couple. He would have...

20.12.2023 40

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Glam rock / The strange life of Alvin Stardust

He had mutton chop sideburns, a vast quiff and was dressed in black leather, even down to murderers’ gloves, over which he wore enormous silver...

05.12.2023 10

The Spectator

John Sturgis

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