Life
The consolations of old age
OK sports fans, what do Dame Vivien Duffield and Evelyn Waugh have in common? The answer is absolutely nothing, so…
The palpable tragedy of New Year’s Eve in A&E
The new year was two hours young. My boy and I were side by side on a row of three…
Doing The Birdie Song on the back of a trainee racehorse
‘Start at the back and try to pass as many horses as you can,’ said the trainer, as we stepped…
A tale of a Teflon-coated hen pheasant
This is an uplifting story of survival with which to usher in the New Year. At Stoke Park, my home…
Why the north needs Red Rum
The well-bred Sea Pigeon, who had finished seventh in the Derby when trained at Beckhampton by Jeremy Tree, was later…
Bridge
Call me nuts but on 29 December I left lovely, sunny, delicious France for the fairly unlovely Royal National Hotel…
Winter’s tail
The London Classic, the end of the million-dollar Grand Tour, was something of a damp squib. A surfeit of draws…
Puzzle no. 390
Black to play. This is a variation from Carlsen-Grischuk, London Classic 2015. Carlsen won but this week’s puzzle shows how…
Nostradamus
In Competition No. 2929 you were invited to submit an acrostic poem containing some predictions for the next decade, in…
2242: Defeated
Clues in italics are cryptic indications of partial answers. In each case, the indicated part must be 5 39 (five…
To 2240: Various sources
The thematic term (formed by letters cut from definitions, 17, and letters added to definitions) is SCISSORS-AND-PASTE. Unclued lights are…
The left’s own war on science
How much longer can the liberal left survive in the face of growing scientific evidence that many of its core…
Battle for Britain
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Every Test match should have a Ben Stokes (or even a Chris Gayle)
On Sunday morning a friend texted: ‘You watching the big bash, or the domestic stuff down in Australia?’ On one…
Dear Mary: My neighbour is planning a girls’ night in — how can I escape?
Q. Although I have met most of the fellow occupants of my building at residents’ meetings, we don’t socialise. However…
Meet Feng Shang Princess, the (lousy) Chinese restaurant in a boat
The Feng Shang Princess is a floating Chinese restaurant on the Regent’s Canal in north London, which flows from Little…
The words The Spectator gave the world
When the much missed Frank Johnson (1943–2006), once editor of The Spectator, wrote in 1980 that ‘the peculiar need for…
Battle for Britain
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Winter’s tail
The London Classic, the end of the million-dollar Grand Tour, was something of a damp squib. A surfeit of draws…
Puzzle no. 390
Black to play. This is a variation from Carlsen-Grischuk, London Classic 2015. Carlsen won but this week’s puzzle shows how…
Nostradamus
In Competition No. 2929 you were invited to submit an acrostic poem containing some predictions for the next decade, in…
Your problems solved
Q. Although I have met most of the fellow occupants of my building at residents’ meetings, we don’t socialise. However…
That sinking feeling
The Feng Shang Princess is a floating Chinese restaurant on the Regent’s Canal in north London, which flows from Little…
High life
OK sports fans, what do Dame Vivien Duffield and Evelyn Waugh have in common? The answer is absolutely nothing, so…
Long life
This is an uplifting story of survival with which to usher in the New Year. At Stoke Park, my home…
