Life
Dear Mary: How do we stop friends dropping by without calling?
Q. Some years ago, much to the surprise of our many friends in London, my husband and I moved to…
In the footsteps of Hemingway
‘They were living at le Grau du Roi then and the hotel was on a canal that ran from the…
Why disgraced MPs head for the Chiltern Hundreds
I saw in last week’s Spectatorthat the tractor MP had applied for the stewardship of the Manor of Northstead. After…
Are iPhones sending women gaga?
The girl wound down her window, stuck her mobile phone out into midair, and started to take pictures of the…
My solution to unfair traffic fines
My driveway now lies in the middle of an ‘Average Speed Check Zone’. It’s a wonderful arrangement – for me…
Is Klaus Schwab the greatest threat of our time?
New York Alexandra rang me from London to enquire about a man by the name of Klaus Schwab: ‘He sounds…
The Battle for Britain | 14 May 2022
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The art of picking winners
‘Some of our players can hardly write their names,’ moaned one leading football manager. ‘But you should see them add…
Bridge | 14 May 2022
The Spring Fours is one of the great events in the English bridge calendar – a five-day knockout attracting many…
Eccles cakes
When I first made Eccles cakes, I’m not sure I really knew where Eccles was. I certainly didn’t think I’d…
Aussie life
In The Australian Ugliness, published in 1960, the architect Robin Boyd remembered a meal in a hotel dining room in…
Language
Now a new and (I think) much needed expression: ‘disagreement consent’. It’s a play on a more familiar expression I…
The sin of neutrality
Yet again, millions of civilians across the Horn of Africa are starving. The world blames the crisis on drought and…
2551: Madness - solution
The four-letter word was BAND. Unclued lights suggest bandicoot (7A),bandh (11), banda (41), bandana (1D), bandoneon (3), bandook (7D), bandar…
The rise and rise of women’s sport
You might have missed this but something very big is happening in women’s sport. The sheer numbers watching are sensational:…
Are we living in a new pornocracy?
Are we living in a new pornocracy? The first one spanned six decades of the 10th century, during which there…
It’s not cruel to shout at dogs
‘Missing Dog, Please Do Not Call, Chase or Try To Grab Her!! She Will Run!!’ This notice, featuring the face…
Spectator competition winners: If Alan Bennett had been a spy
In Competition No. 3247, you were asked to submit the reflections of a well-known writer on a career path they…
2554: Going, going…
The unclued lights, including one of two words, are of a kind, all confirmed in Chambers. A further example (4)…
No. 701
White to play. Reshevsky-Savon, Petropolis 1973. Reshevsky played the awful 1 Qxg6+, and resigned after 1…Bxg6. Many moves win, but…
Gorilla tactics
There is a video in which a small group of students amble about passing a basketball back and forth. The…
The Battle for Britain | 7 May 2022
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How a May Day car-boot sale gave me back my optimism
So that’s it. Is a third world war possible? It’s already begun, opined a retired US general in the newspaper.…
A cake shop from the time of the Profumo affair: Maison Bertaux reviewed
Amid the bronze cladding of Soho, with its pop-up, suck-down restaurants – the Cadbury’s Creme Egg Café was a nadir…
Dear Mary: how do I alert my neighbour to my generosity?
Q. We went for lunch over the bank holiday with the parents of one of my son’s schoolfriends. We had…
