Life
I’ve been bitten by the TikTok bug
In theory TikTok knows nothing about me. I have posted two videos: one of my grandsons kicking a football in…
How Monte Carlo went to hell
I now find resorts more fun out of season. Civilised tourists are as rare as an intelligent Hollywood movie, so…
There are almost no animals left – but we’ve been here before
Laikipia You know things are bad when the zebras are thin. Even during most droughts, zebras are like matrons at…
The Lycra louts are back
‘That will be £7.50 please,’ said the girl in the bakery to the cyclist in black Lycra after he put…
Bridge | 30 July 2022
The bridge world is coming back to life with a bang. The World Championships were held (live) in March, the…
Aussie life
Sport has always played a big part in Australian life, but in the interests of diversity it would be wrong…
Language
No sooner had the words ‘blue murder’ appeared on the cover of this august journal than a Speccie reader was…
Dear Mary: How do we say no to a neighbour who wants to use our pool?
Q. I was billeted for a party in Norfolk with a couple previously unknown to me. They were more than…
The global elite and me
Here come the global elites. They love it here. Their spiritual second home. The heat, the rosé, the food, the…
The hidden benefit of an electric car
Hello, and welcome to episode one of What’s in My Frunk?, the first in an occasional Spectator series of news…
My brief career as a marijuana farmer
The latest heatwave reminded me of my brief career as a marijuana farmer. This wasn’t in the summer of 1976,…
Think pink: there’s no shame in quaffing rosé in England
In the battle of ideas, it is sometimes necessary to make a tactical withdrawal. That is now the case over…
The ever-shifting language of ‘culture wars’
‘Come on, old girl,’ said my husband as though encouraging a cow stuck in a ditch, ‘you must know.’ It…
In praise of Spectator readers
Michael Beloff, QC and past president of Trinity College Oxford, has just had his memoir reviewed in The Spectator, and…
Why farming needs Ben Wallace
My phone buzzed and rang while I was doing the horses until I thought, fine, I’ll call the Defence Secretary…
Bridge | 23 July 2022
I was very sorry to learn of the death of the legendary American player and author Eddie Kantar – he…
Horse racing’s invisible heroes
President George W. Bush used to quote his fellow Texan Robert Strauss who famously declared: ‘You can fool some of…
The Battle for Britain | 23 July 2022
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No. 712
White to play and mate in two. Composed by Philip Hamilton Williams, British Chess Magazine, 1895. Answers should be emailed…
Wetware
Modern chess computers, like the program ‘Stockfish’, are treated as oracles. Plug in a position, start the engine, and within…
Spectator competition winners: a postcard from Airstrip One
In Competition No. 3258, you were invited to submit a postcard sent while on holiday in a well-known fictional destination…
2565: 3 x 2
The unclued lights (two single words, one a proper noun, four pairs and one trio) share a certain feature. …
2562: Clear view... - solution
The title resolves into CL RVW which suggests the 150th anniversary of the birth of Ralph Vaughan Williams. The unclued…
Aussie life
A younger cohort of visitors is heading for Bowen, best known hitherto as the home of the Big Mango, a…
Language
Here is a delightful phrase which may well become a familiar idiom in English language: ‘weather dependent economy’. I encountered…
