Life
My week alone in a mess of morphine foils
After commuting to Marseille for nine days of radiotherapy, I spent the week alone in the cave, in bed, in…
The Battle for Britain | 5 November 2022
The post The Battle for Britain | 5 November 2022 appeared first on The Spectator. Got something to add? Join…
Aussie life
My wife gave me a rude but loving shove in bed this morning. ‘Well,’ she asked, ‘are you going to…
Language
Have you ever come across the ‘Oxford comma’? If you haven’t, here’s a short explanation. When you have a list…
Hot, cold, sweet, salty, boozy, spiced: Bananas Foster has everything
I’m a sucker for a challenge. I absolutely cannot resist a little competition. Throw down a gauntlet, and I am…
Bridge | 29 October 2022
I get very tense, not to say cranky, if I’m interrupted while playing bridge. But last week I decided it…
Spectator competition winners: Samuel Pepys on Liz Truss
In Competition No. 3272, you were invited to imagine a well-known diarist, real or fictitious, commenting on contemporary events. This…
The case for ‘premium economy’ train carriages
A few years ago I wrote here about the unexpected symbiosis between economy passengers and business travellers on commercial flights.…
The Battle for Britain | 29 October 2022
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2579: Destructive plot
One unclued entry (three words) gives the theme, and five others give two-word names directly connected with it. Remaining unclued…
O frabjous day! My new tumour is just my old prostate friend
The day British media commentators were christening Rishi’s coronation as Britain’s ‘Obama moment’, French ones were calling the particularly horrible…
My battle with British Gas
By the time I got through to someone at British Gas to complain about them holding £491 of my money…
New York’s new normal
New York Ms Geniece Draper is a Noo Yawker who has been in the news lately. She is a 40-year-old…
Why ‘great’ should be used with great caution
Sir Keir Starmer told his party conference last month that a Labour government would within a year set up a…
The Eton vs Winchester of the wine world
A few days ago, when everything looked black, a small group of us were consoling ourselves over a couple of…
Losing their heads
Chess players tend to fidget while they think. They crack their knuckles, stir their coffee, and bounce their legs. I…
2576: After Eleven – solution
The unclued lights are names of the men who followed Armstrong and Aldrin (Apollo 11) in walking on the moon…
Dear Mary: Should I give weekend guests paper napkins or napkin rings?
Q. I have a hatred of paper napkins – eating outside, they blow away; inside, people drop them on the…
No. 726
White to play. Salov-Horvath, Groningen 1983. In this treacherous rook and pawn endgame, White found the only winning move. What…
Lesson to self: don’t put a bet on in autumn
When things went wrong in his days running the Daily Mirror, the scoundrel Robert Maxwell used to shout: ‘Which effing…
