The quest for the perfect malt
It was poker night. Five yuppies crammed round a table in a room at the back of a south London…
Nation-builders on a sticky wicket: the farce and heroism of Pakistani cricket
There is farce in Peter Oborne’s history of cricket in Pakistan. An impossible umpire is abducted by drunken English tourists…
An amateur's guide to the glories of Gleneagles
Pity the folk at Gleneagles. They have the misfortune to host the Ryder Cup this year. Nothing, surely, can surpass…
The general who scribbled and doodled his way around the British empire
Soldier scribes are rare, soldier artists rarer still, and soldiers who can write and draw rarest of all. General Henry…
Brains on a lithographic slab
The Blyth Gallery is situated in the Sherfield Building, deep in the South Kensington campus of Imperial College London. The…
The art of data
When you’re next waiting for a train at King’s Cross, don’t waste time window shopping on the concourse. Instead, pop…
Take a look at John Maynard Keynes's armchair
Discoveries: Art, Science and Exploration at Two Temple Place (until 27 April) is like a giant cabinet of curiosities. Maps,…
Golf in the Algarve
My second tee shot soared high and straight, then hurtled down towards the lake; a repeat of my first. I…
Why is there no God in the British Library's latest exhibition?
Georgians Revealed: Life, Style and the Making of Modern Britain at the British Library (until 11 March) would have you…
How I felt when I stepped inside the Hadron Collider
I have a new party piece. I can explain, with a degree of clarity and precision, how the Hadron Collider…
Hurrah for Andrew Strauss
Andrew Strauss is a serious man and Driving Ambition (Hodder, £20, Spectator Bookshop, £18) is a serious book. It looks…
Mass destruction in an age of mass media
Catalyst: Contemporary Art and War at the Imperial War Museum North (until 23 February) is alone worth a trip to…
Jeremy Deller curates a fascinating and funny exhibition in Manchester
All That Is Solid Melts Into Air is an art show largely without art (at Manchester Art Gallery until 19…
Come over here, Tom Stoppard
David Blackburn talks to Gwyneth Williams,who wants to revitalise Radio 4’s coverage of the arts
Send George Osborne to the Tower
Send George Osborne to the Tower, then he might learn that currency manipulation rarely ends well. Coins and Kings occupies…
A secret gallery at Hyde Park Corner
A rare jewel sits in the middle of the Hyde Park Corner roundabout. The Quadrant Gallery, run by English Heritage,…
Sussex vs shale
What happens when talk of ‘exploratory drilling’ comes to a pretty corner of West Sussex
