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Hello, I'm Sam Holmes and welcome to Spectator Out Loud. Every week, a few of our favourite

writers read their pieces from the latest

issue. This week, we'll hear from Freddie Gray on his time spent on the Polish-Ukrainian border,

Lionel Shriver on the return of actual badness, and Philip Patrick on the strange East Asian

practice of hiring a white monkey. First up, Freddie Gray. On the Ukrainian side of the Polish border, near a place

called Shenyi, where the refugee crisis is brewing, an old black man approaches us.

Am I in Moldova? he asked gently in French, pointing to the fence. No, I tell him, that's Poland.

Moldova is 250 miles away.

The man shrugs and returns to the endless queue of North African migrants. Several young men tell us that they have been there for four days wanting to cross. The Ukrainian guards hold

baseball bats. British newspapers have reported shocking racism at the border.

And of course, it's easier to get into Poland if you have a European or British passport and white

skin. Yet we witness no ill behaviour. It's just a very cruel situation.

I'm with my colleague, Paul Wood, the veteran war reporter, and Adam Holloway, an ex-army captain, and a Tory MP.

Adam is in trouble because ITV, his old employer, has done a story saying Downing Street has criticised him for, quote, travelling to Ukraine against government advice.

It's complete bollocks, says Adam.

We stay in Leviv, Ukraine's most western and nationalist major city.

The citizens are highly anxious, though not as hysterical as many Brits on Twitter.

Livvians are eager to convey the sense of a great war effort to visiting journalists,

and it's hard not to be won over.

Old men stop and say, British, yes, and give you a thumbs up.

When we say, if you win the war, they interrupt.

...