Mystery portrait
Shortly after moving to Manhattan in the noughties I was strolling through the West Village when I came across a…
Aussie Life
It has been brought to my attention that the rename Victoria suggestion I made in these pages two weeks ago…
Simon Collins
Like most Speccie readers I am anxious to give public vent to my outrage at police brutality, institutional racism and…
Simon Collins
The uncompromising nature of Australia’s lockdown may well have been inspired by the example set by other countries. Or it…
Simon Collins
Some people like to round off a meal with a glass of brandy and a cigar; others settle for coffee…
Simon Collins
People who shout and gesticulate while walking unaccompanied though city centres used to be called nutters. But we now have…
Simon Collins
After the cancellation of the Tokyo Olympics, the postponement of the 2020 Tour de France couldn’t have taken many people…
Simon Collins
‘What did you do in the war, grandad?’ ‘I stayed in.’ If this really is a war, as we are…
Simon Collins
I began my self-quarantine last week, after returning from London, but it wasn’t until five days later that the symptoms…
They’ll be able to squeeze pizza under the door when I’m back home self isolating, won’t they?
I write this in the Singapore Airlines lounge at Heathrow. My flight doesn’t leave for another three hours, but these…
Simon Collins
A friend recently invited me to a Sydney gallery opening to see paintings by a group of first nations artists…
Simon Collins
Apparently many travellers now pay more attention to a hotel’s guest reviews than to its advertising. I tend to ignore…
Fear itself
‘A very merry Christmas,’ sang John Lennon in 1971, ‘and a Happy New Year; let’s hope it’s a good one,…
Simon Collins
If you stay single long enough most of your married friends will stop trying to match-make you and take up…
Simon Collins
‘Dr Martin Luther King didn’t say “I have a nightmare,”’ is the opening line of a letter the IPA recently…
Simon Collins
I’m starting to think the Victorians were right about children. And when I say Victorians, I’m not talking about that…
Simon Collins
Like any right-thinking Australian, I was outraged to learn from a newspaper that our oldest bank has broken the law…
Clive James isn’t dead. He’s just off learning something new
There must be poets writing today who can’t remember a time when Clive James wasn’t dying. Indeed, his capitulation to…
Simon Collins
‘We are assessing the concerns raised and will investigate whether the program met our editorial standards,’ said the ABC’s managing…
Simon Collins
With its manicured beachfront and sparkling, yacht-speckled view out across the water to the harbour heads, The Bathers Pavilion at…
Simon Collins
For aesthetic reasons I did not participate in this year’s Sydney Skinny, the all-nude fund-raising harbour swim organised by my…
Simon Collins
No institutions play a bigger collective part in the socio-economic future-proofing of a country than its universities. That’s where its…
Woodstock woes
Thanks to the refusal of Australian weather to stick to the IPCC script, Sydneysiders have just experienced one of the…
Queen's Land
If last ditch Remainer attempts to block a no-deal Brexit fail, our head of state, already seen to have aided…
Simon Collins
In a recent Speccie column my friend Giles Auty recalled his late father’s difficulties with door handles. This may have…
