- Larry Adler, the world-famous mouth organist, wrote several articles for The Spectator in the 1970s during Harold Creighton’s editorship.
- Jani Allan, the British-born South African journalist was a Spectator correspondent in the 1990s.
- Kingsley Amis wrote his first Spectator articles in the 1950s after Walter Taplin became editor. He maintained a close relationship with the magazine for the rest of his life, contributing articles, book reviews and short stories right up until his death in 1995. His last published words appeared in The Spectator.
- Jeffrey Bernard is perhaps best remembered for his notorious ‘Low Life’ column, recounting tales of a debauched and insalubrious life spent largely in the vicinity of the Coach and Horses pub in Soho, London.
- H.E. Bates
- John Betjeman joined the magazine in 1954 to write his ‘City and Suburban’ column.
- Craig Brown wrote a humorous column from 1988, in the persona of the right-wing, pipe smoking Wallace Arnold, supposedly a spoof on a particular kind of Spectator reader.
- John Buchan
- Quentin Blake
- Anthony Blunt
- Randolph Churchill
- John Cleese acted as 'Contributing Editor' ten days after the Ides of March 2009.
- Joan Collins has often contributed as a Guest Diarist.
- James Delingpole
- Peter Fleming, usually under the pseudonym, ‘Strix’, wrote regularly from 1931, when he joined as assistant literary editor till his death in 1971.
- Clement Freud
- Graham Greene was Literary Editor and cinema critic in the 1930s. His film reviews in particular have since come to be regarded as "some of the most trenchant reviews of his or indeed any other time".
- Germaine Greer has been a frequent contributor and was even offered the editorship after Alexander Chancellor. She declined because ‘she was not the right person for the job’.
- Donald Hankey - author of the celebrated essays on The First World War which appeared first in The Spectator under his pseudonym, A Student in Arms.
- Christopher Hitchens wrote regular articles from Washington in the 1980s.
- Barry Humphries is a frequent Guest Diarist.
- Paul Johnson wrote a media column from 1981 which later became 'And Another Thing' with a more general brief.
- Mary Killen's ‘Dear Mary’ column, has continued to give witty and helpful advice on etiquette beginning under Dominic Lawson’s editorship.
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- Raymond Keene, the chess Grandmaster, has been the chess columnist since 1977, retaining the role despite the unauthorised copying of a piece by Edward Winter for his column of 7 June 2008. The matter was reported in Private Eye.
- Ludovic Kennedy
- Philip Larkin began to contribute poems and reviews to The Spectator in 1953.
- Nigella Lawson began her career as a journalist writing a restaurant column under Charles Moore in the 1980s.
- Bernard Levin, as ‘Taper’, wrote ‘one of the most coruscating, witty and at times withering columns in The Spectator’s history’ from 1956 to 1962.
- F.R. Leavis
- Hilary Mantel became the paper’s cinema critic in 1987.
- Jonathan Miller
- Charles Moore has provided the Spectator' Notes for the past few years.
- John Osborne was a frequent guest diarist towards the end of his life, most notably for 1994 Christmas issue, when he complained of 'yet another mystery ailment' and died the same Christmas Eve.
- Jennifer Paterson, one of the Two Fat Ladies, cooked for weekly lunches at the "Spectator" in the 1980s, and for years wrote a food column in the magazine.
- Kim Philby
- James Pope-Hennessy
- Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- Harold Nicolson
- Seán Ó Faoláin
- William Plomer
- V.S. Pritchett
- John Simpson wrote The Spectator's weekly reports on the Gulf War when he was also the BBC’s man in Baghdad.
- Hugh Trevor-Roper was an occasional reviewer and, under the pseudonym Mercurius Oxoniensis, began an irregular humorous column about Oxford academia in the late 1960s.
- Taki Theodoracopulos, or simply 'Taki', started writing his ‘High Life’ column in 1977 as an answer Bernard's 'Low Life'. The pairing continues today, since ‘Low Life’ has been revived by Jeremy Clarke.
- Kenneth Tynan wrote theatre reviews for The Spectator in the 1950s.
- Auberon Waugh, became political commentator in 1967.
- Evelyn Waugh first began contributing to The Spectator in the 1930s.
- A.N. Wilson was Literary Editor until his controversial dismissal by Alexander Chancellor in 1983.
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