Life
Aussie Life
The most powerful ad I created for David Cameron’s 2010 election campaign was a billboard featuring a still from a…
Aussie Language
A Speccie reader has asked if it is linguistically permissible to label the tactics of climate catastrophists as ‘brainwashing.’ The…
The lost magic of Palm Beach
Gstaad Good old Helvetia. I’m quitting her for the rainy but pleasant land of England. The cows are beginning to…
How to breathe life back into European rugby
French rugby has always been well stocked with boeuf but now it has added lashings of exceptionally tangy moutarde and…
No. 641
White to play. Carlsen–Vachier-Lagrave, Opera Euro Rapid 2020. Carlsen played 31 Bd4+ Rxd4 32 cxd4 Bxd4 which should be drawn,…
Feasting on memories of Venice
Dining in catastrophe used to be more interesting: but we must be fair. It was a smaller (and wetter) catastrophe:…
Dear Mary: Why is my 87-year-old mother emailing me risque jokes?
Q. My mother, aged 87, has taken to forwarding me by email slightly risqué jokes. Her carer is the recipient…
From bread to Kate Bingham: the evolution of ‘nimble’
‘I’ll stick to being Brazilian,’ said my husband. It was a family joke. Every time a politician on the radio…
The coup that nearly cost the bookies £10 million
Since coup conspirators nearly won £10 million from the bookies, the sport has divided into two camps. Some grinned and…
2494: Back to front
The unclued lights have something in common. None is a real word. Across 1 Promoted male only editor eclipsed…
The Battle for Britain | 20 February 2021
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The mystical power of the word ‘unsafe’
The street light as bright as the Dog Star was fitted with a shield, and I was assigned my own…
2491: Recycling - solution
The ten unclued lights comprise the seven primary Wombles, best known for their recycling of objects found on Wimbledon Common.…
Spectator competition winners: mischievous acrostics
In Competition No. 3186 you were invited to supply an acrostic poem praising or dispraising a public figure, in which…
Bridge | 20 February 2021
In general, I don’t like to play bridge just for fun: I prefer the cut-throat atmosphere of a tournament, or…
He who hesitates…
If there was one ingredient which separated the two finalists of the Opera Euro Rapid, it was confidence. The third…
My advice for the next ‘free speech champion’
I was delighted to hear the government plans to appoint a ‘free speech champion’ to the board of the Office…
My French lessons with Lord Nelson
Every Friday afternoon the foreign correspondent and I attend a French lady’s home for our one-hour French lesson. The foreign…
Aussie Life
It’s likely that 2021 will see the last walkers freely ascend the summit of Mt Warning in northern New South…
Aussie Language
The word of the past decade (2011-2020) is ‘fake news.’ That, at least, is the opinion of the fine folk…
My quest for the perfect bean burger
Eventually, I got so bored I ended up at Burger King. For no other reason than to amuse myself one…
The Battle for Britain | 13 February 2021
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Dear Mary: What should I do about my husband’s schoolboy table habits?
Q. My husband has always worked extremely hard and now does so from home — so I go to great…
An elegy on the end of elegance
Gstaad During these dark, endless periods of lockdown, let’s take a trip down memory lane to a time when we…
The rudeness of calling Jane Austen by her surname
I agree with Charles Moore (The Spectator, 6 February) that it is a shame the Times is dropping its use…
