General
So Last Century
New York is actually a city whose very fault lines are all about cliques, racist divides, lack of social mobility and despicable prejudices
It's the Environment, Stupid
Passionate and generous philanthropic engagement with worthy causes is all well and good — but ultimately it means nothing unless we get serious about the environment, says Ben Goldsmith
The Silvera Age
Ana Silvera, who will be appearing at How the Light Gets In, the philosophy festival at Hay co-sponsored by Spear's, talks to Bianca Brigitte Bonomi
Time is Money
Handmade Swiss watches definitely don’t come cheap. But take a good look at how these things are put together and you’ll see why they’re worth every franc, says James Gurney
Puttin' on the Spritz
What’s that gorgeous scent in the air? It’s the smell of change, as fragrance lovers educate themselves and become proper perfume connoisseurs, says Lucia van der Post
At the Sharp End: Sir David Tang
Hong Kong-based entrepreneur Sir David Tang faces the Spear’s inquisition
His Nibs
Nick Foulkes surveys his ranks of fine writing instruments, selects his shade of ink and a leaf of smart stationery — then switches on his PC to write about the matchless beauty of fountain pens
Idle Thoughts
Ah, there’s nothing like a massive traffic jam on a stretch of the M4 to liberate one’s most tender, wistful and poetic sentiments, says Andrei Navrozov
The Posh and their Dosh
Who said the rich are different? Like the rest of us, they can be mean as well as generous, cruel as well as kind, foolish as well as wise — especially when it comes to money, says Rupert Phelps
The Russians are Coming!
Christopher Silvester meets Irina Shumovitch, who’s helping to open the doors of England’s top public schools to a generation of bright young Russians
Books
Boomerang: The Meltdown Tour
Michael Lewis
Kyle Bass, a Texas-based hedge-fund manager who did well out of shorting the sub-prime property market before the 2008 financial crisis, used to play the international strategy board game Risk as a kid, which led him to find out everything about a tiny country called Iceland, which was a key strategic location in the game
The Gentry: Stories of the English
Adam Nicolson
How delicious the notion of the gentry is. How beautifully it shades into every kind of 19th-century fraudulence, into Eric Hobsbawm’s Invention of Tradition. How easily it locks on to the much later and altogether more middle-class idea of the gentleman
Zahawi and Hancock on 'Masters of Nothing'
Anne McElvoy
The Wide Blue Yonder
A new breed of Tory MPs emerged from the 2010 general election, and already some are making their mark. Anne McElvoy looks at two of Cameron’s cabal
HNW Events
Spear's/Speechly Bircham Seminar: How to be a philanthropist in the 21st century
21 February 2012
Spear's Young Turk Awards 2012
01 April 2012
Spear's Design for Living Awards 2012
01 May 2012
Spear's Wealth Insight Forum 2012
19 September 2012
The Diary
Mark Hix
04 Jan 2012
Amanda Palmer
22 Nov 2011
Patrick Perrin
11 Oct 2011
Nicky Haslam
05 Aug 2011
Stephen Webster
06 Jul 2011