Jason Goodwin

The dance more complex than the most elaborate mating ritual: Or, how to buy a new car

Jason Goodwin travels to East London to negotiate a good price on a Big Diesel Estate.

Jason Goodwin: 'When I was 18, I tried playing it cool. I believed next to nothing. I rolled my eyes at solemnity and ceremony. The business of shedding my cool has been years in the making'

Jason Goodwin on how seeing the world through the eyes of others makes him wonder why he spent years pretending not to be impressed.

Jason Goodwin: 'Ahead of the Japanese invasion of Borneo, I was told, she had memorised all the top-secret embassy codes to prevent them falling into enemy hands'

The cooing of wood pigeons in autumn reminds our columnist of his grandmother and her sisters, one of which was in a secret service in the Second World War.

Jason Goodwin: 'I slung my boots around my neck and squeezed the mud between my toes. Touching the earth with my feet — puddles, grass, leafmould — was curiously liberating'

Our Spectator columnist sheds his shoes and earths himself.

Jason Goodwin: I always give the snails a flying chance at new life — but with slugs, I am merciless

It's all very well being At One with Nature, but when they start feasting on your pelargoniums, they've crossed a line says Jason Goodwin.

Jason Goodwin: When gaucho chic in Dorset becomes something 'between instrument of torture and decommissioned nuclear reactor'

An attempt to bring a touch of gaucho chic to Dorset doesn't go well for our columnist.

Jason Goodwin: 'In the garden I see myself as a god, quite Old Testament, full of wrath and vengeance'

'Bonfires spring up in my wake,' says Jason Goodwin. 'Brambles part before me like the Red Sea.'

Jason Goodwin: The Neolithic treasure I missed by 10 minutes

Jason Goodwin goes in search of treasure, but not the traditional gold and silver.

Jason Goodwin: The century-old language learning course that teased and intrigued me beyond endurance

Learning Italian sends Jason Goodwin down a route he'd never have expected — and his life is all the richer for it.

Jason Goodwin: How to fill the Sycamore Gap

Our columnist on how some good might come out of the felling of the sycamore in the gap.

Jason Goodwin: A somewhat comprehensive agenda for fixing Britain, from turning off the internet to compulsory Natural Service for 18-year-olds

'I know they will thank me in the end,' says our columnist, with tongue in cheek — though who knows how firmly?

Jason Goodwin: The day our little corner of England changed forever

An archaeological discovery near Jason Goodwin's idyllic spot has sparked excitement far and wide — but not a little dismay nearer to home.

Jason Goodwin in Rome: 'Shelley would have been appalled; Keats would have told them to shut up'

Jason Goodwin heads to the Eternal City and finds a very 21st century mode of transport.

Jason Goodwin: They've started measuring distances in minutes. But what of loitering and lingering? What of the flowers of the wayside and the hill views?

Jason Goodwin rages against the sign-erecting quangos who are helping tourists miss the point.

Jason Goodwin: 'What makes a garden is serendipity. Two plants grow together and a stray seedling springs up between them'

Jason Goodwin's garden tours have kicked off, leaving him musing on things unplanned.

Jason Goodwin: How to be a saint (you'll need some tongs and a furnace)

Ancient kings became saints by popular acclaim, says Jason Goodwin — and that is ‘the kind of sainthood worth achieving if you are a modern king, whose life through thick and thin is devoted to helping the less fortunate, upholding faith and caring for the planet.’

Jason Goodwin: 'My evenings spent sticking the pots together with Gorilla glue have been the most satisfactory of the season'

Jason's restorative handiwork gives him a thrill of satisfaction that no mere purchase could ever hope to equal.

Jason Goodwin: 'He thought his wife had punched him — but he was down the pub with a six-inch knife sticking out of his back'

A chance encounter in the unlikeliest of places leaves Jason Goodwin with a memory he'll surely never forget.

Plotting to save the parish church

As burial becomes increasingly sought-after, Jason Goodwin takes a look at the intriguing idea of Rupert Sheldrake and sees huge potential.

Jason Goodwin: How to drive from Heathrow to London in just seven hours

Press on or turn back? Jason Goodwin tells a story of his friend's navigational disaster and finds more wisdom in it than the odd missed road sign might suggest.