The Spectator Australia
7 March 2009 issue NZ$7.95

I had a great night reading this latest issue from cover to cover.
Some of the things that caught my eye included:

Diary – Jill Dupleix – the joys of living above a restaurant.

Here is an excerpt:
The Italian restaurant on the ground floor beneath our flat threw its opening party last night, and we all ate brilliant pizza and porchetta and sang along to Volare. (Only the word ‘volare’ and the ‘woh, oh, oh, oh’ bit — nobody knew the rest of the lyrics, not even the Italians). But it all felt rather surreal.
When we first moved in eight years ago, everyone said we would hate living above a (then Greek) restaurant. Instead, the two of us — restaurant critic and food-writer — adored it. We loved stepping out the door in the morning on to the box of tomatoes left outside the kitchen, and enjoyed chatting to the apprentices as they lined up for their morning fag. I swapped recipes with the chef, while the restaurant critic got first-hand experience of the blend of daily drudgery and drama behind every restaurant door.

Australian Notes – Peter Coleman – here is his opening paragraph:

The new Prime Minister of New Zealand, John Key, (pic left), flew in on Sunday, had dinner at Kirribilli House, held talks on Monday, and flew out again — with the Australian press showing minimal interest in him. But his ideas are worth probing. He did not set out to highlight his differences with the Australian government, but unlike Prime Minister Rudd, Key does not believe in a massive ‘fiscal stimulus’. He is for cutting taxes, easing green restrictions on growth, and loosening unfair dismissal laws. He wants to grow, not spend, our way out of the crisis. Perhaps this self-made millionaire, whose mother was a Jewish refugee from Vienna, talks too much about everything, from gays and Maoris to cricket and rugby. But as unemployment spreads across Australia, he has something to tell us.

And The Spectator’s Coffee House blog is always worth a visit: www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse

A cigarette and a chat with Joe the Plumber

Freddy Gray on right wing politics in the US.

The new Spectator Book Club

The Spectator has launched an online book club. The idea is to combine everything which makes the magazine such a beacon on the literary landscape with all the digital razzmatazz of Web 2.0, and, in doing so, to create a natural home for booklovers across the globe. What’s more, membership is free, and all are welcome.
What can you expect to find there?

First, the online review archive, which contains a copy of every Spectator book review from the past five years.

This will be supplemented each week with the latest reviews and, in time, we will make more and more past articles available. This promises to grow into an invaluable resource; searchable by author, by reviewer and by genre or sub-genre. And, in the spirit of the rest of the Spectator website, you can leave your own comments on the reviews, as if on an instant letters page.

There is a whole heap more I could wax lyrical about but this will give you a taste. A great magazine.