Life
Language
The word ‘mulligan’ is new to me – but golfers everywhere will find it familiar. In golf a ‘mulligan’ is…
Yorkshire puddings: is there anything as satisfying?
My mother, a Yorkshire woman, would occasionally take shortcuts in the kitchen, but not when it came to a roast,…
Faultless food with the promise of vengeance: The Trough, reviewed
Lady Bamford’s Cotswold fairy-land Daylesford Farm has sprouted leaves. It is no longer a farm shop, which should be a…
Harry Kane is many things – but he’s not a leader
What’s not to love about David de Gea? Manchester United’s goalkeeper might appear to have it all: a humongous salary,…
My blue tick humiliation
I was one of the first people to take up Elon Musk’s offer to purchase a blue tick, the Twitter…
Spectator competition winners: poems with multisyllabic rhyme words
In Competition No. 3296, you were invited to provide a poem whose rhyme words are all at least three syllables.…
The vegans have landed in West Cork
After a day’s house-hunting in West Cork, I texted the builder boyfriend to say that we were too late. The…
My morphine machine has broken
Monday morning. In comes Frank. Frank is a carer in his late fifties. He comes daily to wash me. Still…
New York’s killer cyclists
New York The most likely place to be injured, or even killed, in the Bagel is the sidewalk, any sidewalk,…
Aussie life
‘Where did all the poof readers go?’ is not a question which would make it into many Australian publications. I…
Language
‘White guilt’ is one of the concepts lying behind the proposed Indigenous Voice. When Prime Minister Albanese announced he had…
The restorative qualities of a great martini
It was a perfect setting for a spring day, next to a 15th-century barn. Other walls and buildings had clearly…
Why are beds flat?
Last month in a Swiss hotel, I came across an idea so beautifully simple that I felt it would be…
The ‘public humiliation diet’ is very effective
As another summer approaches, I’ve embarked on yet another attempt to lose weight. You’d have thought I’d have learnt my…
