Life
Dear Mary: How do I stop a dinner guest double-dipping?
Q. During lockdown I made good friends with a neighbour who I would never have met otherwise. This man lives…
Virtue signalling is really status signalling
A £19,000-a-year London day school was in the news this week because it has started instructing its pupils about ‘white…
The Battle for Britain | 23 October 2021
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The problem with online property searches
In 1966, the legendary adman David Ogilvy set out to buy a home in France. He boarded a transatlantic liner…
Can a criminal really be ‘prolific’?
The BBC made a documentary about a man sent to prison for being the ‘most prolific rapist in British legal…
Aussie Life
The political career of Christian Porter has been destroyed by the ABC. This is someone who was the Commonwealth Attorney-General…
Aussie Language
A Speccie reader has emailed asking me for an explanation of the word ‘climatarian’. We know what Presbyterians are, she…
My horse is allergic to beige carpet
The horse lorry arrived and lowered its ramp — and I stood in front of it knowing that my thoroughbred…
Acorns and aliens: lunch with Vernon and the Ukrainians
Catriona and I were late for lunch at Vernon’s because I couldn’t get out of bed. The four of them…
Bridge | 16 October 2021
The Gold Cup is the most prestigious Open Teams event in Britain, and has been ever since Colonel ‘Pops’ Beasley…
Charlie Appleby is the trainer to beat
I know what Keats was on about with his mists and mellow fruitfulness, but autumn is less of a joy…
Succession gets the rich and powerful all wrong
They have stepped into the pop-culture spotlight via the HBO hit Succession, a hatchet job on the very rich and…
Where did all of rugby’s fans go?
Could rugby union get any better? The entertainment in the Premiership is breathtaking and the overall product as good as…
The ground rules, from coffee to marriage
There’s a rude gesture in Pickwick that I don’t quite understand. Mr Jackson, a young lawyer’s clerk in conversation with…
Dear Mary: should I have asked out my rush-hour crush?
Q. On a train journey the other day I sat opposite someone I found immensely attractive. We struck up a…
The Batman restaurant that’s totally bats: Park Row reviewed
There is a Batman restaurant in London, or rather there was: Savini at the Criterion on Piccadilly Circus. Savini was…
The Battle for Britain | 16 October 2021
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Chicken Marbella
What is it about retro food? I don’t mean nostalgic food, from school dinner favourites to your grandmother’s signature dishes.…
‘Retain and Explain’ won’t end the culture wars
I’m sympathetic to Oliver Dowden’s formula for defusing culture-war disputes about statues of controversial historic figures: ‘retain and explain’. That…
Spectator competition winners: Newly discovered short stories by poets
In Competition No. 3220, you were invited to supply a newly discovered short story by a well-known 19th- or 20th-century…
The sudden mate
The hero pauses, plays the move, and announces ‘Checkmate!’ The villain crumples in shock. It’s a scene played out countless…
2528: Not to Lose
Unclued entries are words (one hyphened) or phrases (three of four words each, one of three words, two each of…
No. 675
White to play and mate in one. I found this puzzle online, composed by someone with the pseudonym ‘Illion’. I…
2525: Prime Times - solution
The [5 Down] MILESTONE puzzle number 2525 is the product of PRIME numbers 101 TIMES 5 TIMES 5, equivalently the…
Aussie Life
One of the most compelling things about Stanley Kubrick’s sci-fi masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey, is the way we don’t…
