The British right is up for grabs. As May's local elections approach, the Conservatives face strong competition from Reform UK.

Join the Spectator's assistant editor, Isabel Hardman, for the spectator debate, the fight for the right, on Wednesday, the 29th of April in London.

We will pit the Conservatives represented by Matthew Saeed and Dominic Johnson against Reform UK, represented by Matt Goodwin

and Danny Kruger. To see which party truly represents the future of the right, book your tickets at

spectator.com forward slash fight.

Hello and welcome to Spectator Out Loud, where each week we choose some of our favourite pieces from the magazine and ask their writers to read them aloud. I'm Patrick Gibbons

on this week's podcast. Catherine Osler, the former editor of Tatler, ponders the drama of the courtroom as she travels

around the Kent countryside. Following the news of the ceasefire with Iran, Paul Wood says that no one knows what Trump will do next. John Power encourages Gen Z men to go hiking. And finally, astrophysicist David Whitehouse explores the dark side of the moon.

Up first, Catherine Osler.

I can't resist a courtroom drama, Prince Harry versus the press, for example.

Journalists I admire on one side, aggrieved celebrities on the other.

Among the usual suspects, I have a fondness for Elizabeth Hurley.

When I was editor of Tatler, she gamely posed

for the cover in a satin gown in a breezy field, with a friendly goat in tow, with a cover line

assuring our readers that people have better sex in the country. The logic escapes me, but it sold

extremely well. But trials can drag on. I was once sent to cover a libel trial.

Imran Khan had accused two cricketers of ball tampering. Hours passed as they fought about gravel,

and I played noughts and crosses with the commentator Henry Blofeld. There was one blissful interlude.

Elegant Charles Gray, QC, a silver fox with old-style foreign office charm,

asked a South African cricketer an expectation of a hearty denial if he would ever condone ball tampering.

Condone it? Of course I condone it, the sporty chap bellowed out in his broad accent,

with all the energy of a charging rhinoceros. The press box

...