Life
Dear Mary: How can I shut up business travel bores?
Q. I work in the London art market. Often, when I run into a fellow dealer and ask how they…
Guinness and oysters — or beef and Haut-Brion — in deepest Ireland
We were talking about the West of Ireland and agreed that there were few greater gastronomic pleasures than a slowly…
‘Clean eating’ is a great word of the year… for 1906
The word of the year, according to Collins, the dictionary people, is binge-watch. It means to watch DVDs consecutively or,…
Battle for Britain
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Grand Larsen-y
It is said that more books have been written about chess than about any other game, sport or pastime. I…
No. 388
Black to play. This is from Sursock–Larsen, Siegen 1970. How can Black win material? Answers to me at The Spectator…
Bad sex award
In Competition No. 2924 you were invited to submit a ‘love scene’ from a novel that dampens rather than boosts…
Dear Mary
Q. I work in the London art market. Often, when I run into a fellow dealer and ask how they…
Guinness and oysters — or beef and Haut-Brion — in deepest Ireland
We were talking about the West of Ireland and agreed that there were few greater gastronomic pleasures than a slowly…
High life
Blind is an indie movie that has an original screenplay by John Buffalo Mailer and is directed by his older…
How the Germans made Glyndebourne
This is hardly the time of year for picnics on the lawn, but I have nevertheless had a week dominated…
How the Germans made Glyndebourne
This is hardly the time of year for picnics on the lawn, but I have nevertheless had a week dominated…
Low life
The car: a ’06 rosso red Seat Ibiza 1.9 TDI Sport, bought three weeks ago from a man who had…
Low life
The car: a ’06 rosso red Seat Ibiza 1.9 TDI Sport, bought three weeks ago from a man who had…
‘Clean eating’ is a great word of the year… for 1906
The word of the year, according to Collins, the dictionary people, is binge-watch. It means to watch DVDs consecutively or,…
Real life
I got on a bus. Well, I wasn’t to know, was I? I just saw a bus stop by the…
Are we looking at the end of liberal democracy?
Listen http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/parisattacksaftermath/media.mp3 As a graduate student in the Harvard Department of Government in the late 1980s, I became slightly jaded…
Are we looking at the end of liberal democracy?
Listen http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/parisattacksaftermath/media.mp3 As a graduate student in the Harvard Department of Government in the late 1980s, I became slightly jaded…
Does HS2 pass the Butterfield test?
Despite my opposition to High Speed 2, I am quite a big fan of HS1, the line which runs from…
The Kenyan night is like a busy shipping lane, but silent
Night falls like a fire curtain at seven and I go to bed not long afterwards, serenaded by bullfrogs after…
Bridge
Bravissimo! The Italians have won gold yet again at the European Champions Cup. The event was launched in 2002, and…
The most dangerous word in the digital world is 'send'
Those who forget the pasta are condemned to reheat it, tweeted Jon Ronson, a man I’d never heard of until…
‘I’m a racist. My sister’s a racist. We’re all racists here’
My sister has a new man in her life: Henry, 60. He lives in a gay hotel. Or rather, it…
They shoot horses, don’t they?
By the time you read this I will have delivered my long-awaited speech to the World Horse Welfare annual conference…
Distorting the truth — US presidential campaign-style
It is hardly uncommon for politicians to lie, especially when their careers are threatened by a sexual transgression — John…
