Life
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. I was billeted for a party in Norfolk with a couple previously unknown to me. They were more than…
Low life
Here come the global elites. They love it here. Their spiritual second home. The heat, the rosé, the food, the…
What’s in my frunk?
Hello, and welcome to episode one of What’s in My Frunk?, the first in an occasional Spectator series of news…
My brief career as a marijuana farmer
The latest heatwave reminded me of my brief career as a marijuana farmer. This wasn’t in the summer of 1976,…
Think pink
In the battle of ideas, it is sometimes necessary to make a tactical withdrawal. That is now the case over…
Culture wars
‘Come on, old girl,’ said my husband as though encouraging a cow stuck in a ditch, ‘you must know.’ It…
High life
Michael Beloff, QC and past president of Trinity College Oxford, has just had his memoir reviewed in The Spectator, and…
Real life
My phone buzzed and rang while I was doing the horses until I thought, fine, I’ll call the Defence Secretary…
Bridge
I was very sorry to learn of the death of the legendary American player and author Eddie Kantar – he…
The turf
President George W. Bush used to quote his fellow Texan Robert Strauss who famously declared: ‘You can fool some of…
The Battle for Britain: Michael Heath
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Puzzle no. 712
White to play and mate in two. Composed by Philip Hamilton Williams, British Chess Magazine, 1895. Answers should be emailed…
Wetware
Modern chess computers, like the program ‘Stockfish’, are treated as oracles. Plug in a position, start the engine, and within…
Storybook holiday
In Competition No. 3258, you were invited to submit a postcard sent while on holiday in a well-known fictional destination…
2565: 3 x 2
The unclued lights (two single words, one a proper noun, four pairs and one trio) share a certain feature. …
Solution to 2562: Clear view…
The title resolves into CL RVW which suggests the 150th anniversary of the birth of Ralph Vaughan Williams. The unclued…
Aussie life
A younger cohort of visitors is heading for Bowen, best known hitherto as the home of the Big Mango, a…
Language
Here is a delightful phrase which may well become a familiar idiom in English language: ‘weather dependent economy’. I encountered…
How Kyrgios saved Wimbledon
What separates this year’s ‘empty seats on centre court’ scandal from every other year’s ‘empty seats on centre court’ scandal?…
Real life
As he grouted the last tile, five years after the bathroom was finished, I knew the game was up. ‘I…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. I have found parties frustrating this month because they have been too crowded. Is there a polite way to…
Civilisation in a sausage
When the Tory party set itself on fire last week a restaurateur told me: ‘Don’t worry, Tanya, we’ll still be…
Our
There was a word I didn’t understand in Boris Johnson’s resignation speech (in which he did not resign). He spoke…
2564: Sea monster
Five unclued lights are descriptions of another (four words), from another, by another (two words). Elsewhere, ignore one accent. …
Puzzle no. 711
White to play. Short-Timman, Staunton Memorial 2008. Short played 1 Qb3, missing an unusual opportunity to cause havoc with the…
