Life
Aussie Life
I’ve travelled to Melbourne several times a year since I was a child and visited last month for the first…
Aussie Language
The expression ‘culture cringe’ was coined in 1950 by literary critic A. A. Phillips to describe the cringing assumption that…
Dramatically wrong
‘Rouse tempers, goad and lacerate, raise whirlwinds.’ Those were the words that Kenneth Tynan, the most celebrated drama critic of…
The problem with football
Anything been happening in football in the past couple of weeks? No? Moving on then… Hang about though. The doomed…
Sleaze
‘Sleaze, sleaze, sleaze!’ exclaimed Sir Keir Starmer in Prime Minister’s Questions last week, hoping that a triple serving might stick.…
Dear Mary
Q. Since the relaxation of lockdown, my brother and his wife have started coming to our garden for takeaway meals.…
The Battle for Britain
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Irresistible force
The Candidates tournament resumed on 19 April in Yekaterinburg. Eight players competed for a €500,000 prize fund, but only one…
Puzzle no. 651
White to play and mate in two moves. Composed by Henry William Butler. Answers should be emailed to chess@spectator.co.uk by…
Bridge
It was great to see an England team win the hotly contested World Bridge Tour ‘Survivor Cup’ recently. Many congratulations…
Real life
Being told by the Tories not to put a local election poster in my window because it will only remind…
The turf
Want to know the winner of the Grand National in 2023? You heard it here first: when the ante-post books…
Low life
‘Willie or bum?’ I said to Catriona on the motorway. Everything in my recent medical career has been introduced via…
Answering back
In Competition No. 3196, you were invited to supply a reply to the poet from Frances Cornford’s fat woman or…
2504: Collectors’ items
Clockwise round the peri-meter go two lines of a topical verse, thirteen words altogether. (The barred off square divides the…
High life
New York What follows has been covered ad nauseam, but I wonder why people were surprised at the planned breakaway…
to 2501: Delightful
The ‘Transport of Delight’, in the song by Flanders and Swann, was that ‘big six-wheeler, scarlet-painted, diesel-engined, London Transport, ninety-seven…
Transported
The St Pancras Brasserie and Champagne Bar by Searcys is as expansive as its name, but ghostly. It is an…
Aussie life
The café of the suburban outdoor pool I swam in when I lived in Melbourne in the 1990’s had a…
Aussie language
In the light of the catastrophic floods on the east coast, it’s time to talk about ‘climate science’. Not the…
Real Life
Trying to get hold of HRT in the time of Covid is like trying to score crack. Possibly, scoring crack…
When thoughts turn to Venice
We were discussing travel, that forbidden delight now tantalisingly close. Where would be our first destination? Forswearing originality, I chose…
Dear Mary
Q. My husband and I have started receiving invitations to large summer events scheduled for after 21 June. We have…
Supermajority
‘Wizard,’ said William. ‘Super,’ said Ginger, in William and the Moon Rocket (1954). More recently we have had Alex Salmond,…
High life
New York The high life has gone with the wind because of you know what. The last time I went…
