Life
The Battle for Britain
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Why business is perfectly relaxed about Brexit
It’s difficult to go into the office nowadays, since most of my colleagues are so distraught by the prospect of…
Dear Mary: Is it OK for a couple to ask us to contribute to their savings as a wedding gift?
Q. Every three months or so my PA blossoms into a great beauty for a couple of weeks, then has…
There is always time for a bottle of Champagne
My friend Dominic decided that it was time to convoke a lunch. There were matters to discuss, including that perennial…
How did BBC’s Late Night Line-Up get its name?
The title of the television review and discussion programme Late Night Line-Up is a curious one. I’d be interested if…
![[Photo: by-studio]](https://www.spectator.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/21SeptHighlife.jpg?w=410&h=275&crop=1)
Why I prefer cows to humans
Gstaad The cows are coming down, the cows are coming down, and I’m off to the Bagel. My Swiss…
![[Photo: Lovattpics]](https://www.spectator.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/21Septlowlife.jpg?w=410&h=275&crop=1)
Semi-recluse (me) seeks dilapidated cottage on Dartmoor to rent
So now I must find somewhere else to put my books and live sometimes. Dartmoor, I thought: one of the…
![Do I need planning permission to fly a Union Flag on my house? [Photo: coldsnowstorm]](https://www.spectator.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/21Septreallife.jpg?w=410&h=275&crop=1)
What Brexiteers can teach Remoaners about good manners
‘If we are going to Westminster to riot,’ I told my Brexit-voting friends over dinner at the Thai restaurant at…
Bridge
The bridge world championships are underway in Wuhan in China, and I’m obsessively following the action online. Fortunately it’s taking…
Adopt a hero
I am often asked which players I admire most and which grandmasters, writers and champions exerted the most influence on…
No. 572
White to play. This is from Nguyen-Alekseenko, Khanty-Mansiysk 2019. White’s queen and rook are both attacked. How does he maintain…
Moggisms
In Competition No. 3116 you were invited to submit an extract from a government memo whose language would meet with…
2426: Her love
The unclued lights (including one of three words, two of two words, and a pair) are names for or are…
to 2423: Redheads
The unclued lights were all leaders of the USSR. First prize Wendy Atkin, Sleaford, LincsRunners-up Robert Burgon, North Berwick, East…
David Cameron is more authentic than Boris Johnson
I don’t recall exactly when I first met David Cameron, but it must have been in Oxford in 1985 shortly…
The Battle for Britain
Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment below.
Farewell, Garry Richardson. We’ll miss you
A day of sporting shocks this Sunday past. As if the news of Tracey Horrobin’s bewitching performance with the ball…
Dear Mary: Can I ask my vegan friend to buy eggs and bacon when I stay with her?
Q. The other day a dear friend rang from her car with all the time in the world to burn…
It’s so easy to go mad in Oxford: Chiang Mai Kitchen reviewed
Oxford is a pile of medieval buildings filled with maniacs, and is therefore one of the most interesting places on…
The link between politics, moisturiser and your air conditioning unit
I asked my husband if I should spend £59 on 20 millilitres of Estée Lauder Advanced Night Repair Intense Reset…
Remembering Tim Hoare – a man like no other
He was a Falstaff in his drinking and in his celebration of life, but his greatness lay in his friendships.…
The woman laid out in the coffin in front of us wasn’t Mum
The receptionist with brown lipstick showed my son and me into a faultless waiting room, whose centrepiece was a big…
Pet health insurance is a scam
‘The reason vets are so expensive now,’ explained the vet in her snazzy green uniform, ‘is because we can do…
Excessive gambling is dangerous – a flutter on the horses is not
Sorry is allegedly the hardest word to say — so Carolyn Harris, chair of the all-party parliamentary group studying gambling-related…
Bridge
Not many male bridge players over a certain age (ten) would call themselves feminists. I won’t repeat what the partner…
