Life
The Battle for Britain | 02 May 2020
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Dear Mary: How can I stop my friends spreading coronavirus conspiracy theories?
Q. Several of my friends and family members have moved on from dark thoughts concerning 9/11, the Kennedy assassination and…
Writing my High Life column made a man of me
As Cole Porter might have said, only second-rate people go on and on about their inner lives. Self-analysis, according to…
Vodka, kaolin and morphine: my welcome drinks at The Spectator offices
In 2001, aged 44, I was hired to write a weekly column for this august paper, and for the first…
We don’t have lockdown in Surrey
The man was unloading cycles from the boot of his car just as I was about to take the turning…
What bees can teach us about efficiency
The newspapers are full of stories about how small groups of engineers from Formula 1 teams have been able to…
2451: Cretinous solution
Unclued lights are anagrams of the names of countries (anagram of Cretinous): UNHOARDS (1A: anagram of Honduras), ATWAIN (5: Taiwan),…
2454: 17 Across
Thirteen unclued lights are of a kind (all singular, not plural) and confirmed in Chambers. 17 across gives the puzzle’s…
Competition winners: Clerihews on Spectator contributors
In Competition No. 3145, to mark the 10,000th issue of The Spectator, you were invited to submit clerihews (two couplets,…
No. 601
Black to play. Sjugirov–Carlsen, Chess24 Banter Blitz Semi Final. In this wild position, Carlsen’s next move put the result beyond…
FantasticStar beats MagzyBogues
‘I’m just completely collapsing in these games… unbelievable.’ World Champion Magnus Carlsen didn’t hide his anguish after losing a game…
How ‘furlough’ became mainstream
In July, in its ‘Guess the definition’ slot, next to the day’s birthdays, the Daily Mail asked its readers to…
The Battle for Britain | 25 April 2020
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If you really want to lose friends, start a magazine
I’m more impressed than most that The Spectator has racked up 10,000 issues, because I used to be a magazine…
Bridge | 25 April 2020
The Alt Invitational is the online tournament that is attracting some of the best players on earth. When the whole…
Fare game: life as The Spectator’s restaurant critic
A fictional Spectator restaurant critic called Forbes McAllister appeared on Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge. He was played…
I’m drinking half as much as usual – with no ill-effects
I cannot remember a prettier Easter, or a more frustrating one. This was no time to be in town. But…
No. 600
Black to play. Andrew Stone–Martin Jogstad, 4NCL Online, April 2020. The queen is trapped on f4, so 1…Rxg5 looks worth…
What does it mean to go ‘stir crazy’?
My husband left a copy of The Spectator open on the table by his chair, next to the little cardboard…
2450: Titled Men solution
Alexandre DUMAS père wrote The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, whose eponymous characters were Athos, Porthos, Aramis…
Spectator competition winners: Pangrams in six lines
In Competition No. 3144 you were invited to submit a poem, six lines at most, containing all the letters of…
The keys to ending lockdown – introverts and brown M&M’s
Once we’ve flattened the curve of infection with mass self-isolation, the next debate will concern how to soften the restrictions…
Dear Mary: How do I get out of bossy chain emails?
Q. Each day while working from home, I have at least one hour-long meeting via Zoom. One of my colleagues…
A first-hand account of a racehorse trainer’s battle for survival
Sport may well be ‘the great triviality’ as Timeform founder Phil Bull once put it, and racing as trivial as…
Bridge | 18 April 2020
While chatting on the phone to my friend Alex Hydes a couple of weeks ago, I asked whether he was…
