Life
The key to a great American key lime pie
A few years ago, a friend wrote a cookery book for the UK market, full of gorgeous dishes, many of…
Spectator Competition: Who’s who?
For Competition 3405 you were invited to submit a scene in which Doctor Who has regenerated into someone very unexpected.…
Has my father’s BBC addiction peaked?
‘I want the stairlift to go faster!’ said my mother, as the machine she was sitting on whirred furiously while…
Aussie life
It used to be believed that treaties could be agreed only between sovereign nations. No longer. The Victorian government, forward-looking…
Language
When a letter to the editor called a political talking head a ‘dingbat’ I searched for the origin of the…
Has Trump been taking inspiration from the royals?
One of the objections to the military parade in Washington, DC last Saturday – supposedly to mark the 250th birthday…
Dear Mary: How do I ditch my slow-walking friend?
Q. I recently attended an opera on a friend’s estate in Kent. It was a multi-generational, non-ticketed, invitation-only event. The…
The (nearly) lost art of the Test match
If you can bear to turn away from the Fifa Club World Cup, take a moment to ponder cricket and…
The politics of ‘rocket boosters’
Sir Keir Starmer said the other day that he wanted to put rocket boosters under AI. It’s not the only…
A man’s restaurant: Victor Garvey at the Midland Grand reviewed
The Midland Grand Hotel at St Pancras Station is George Gilbert Scott’s masterpiece: his Albert Memorial in Hyde Park (a…
Is racing becoming too predictable?
An inquest into the Derby in the Oakley household was to be expected. Mrs Oakley, who bets about as often…
My first ever blind date
Four of us go for lunch once a month. My hippy ceramist neighbour, Geoffrey, is a foodie and one of…
No. 855
White to play. Grischuk-Firouzja, World Blitz Team Championship, London 2025. A bishop up, Firouzja seems to have everything covered. Which…
Why must B&B guests give us advice?
‘You could mow all this lawn here and it would look a treat,’ said the arborist, returning from a stroll…
Aussie life
Last week my contacts at Latrobe Valley Law Courts sent me a digital scan of one page of the Leongatha…
Language
Speccie reader (Joshua) asks about the expression ‘unrealised capital gains’ and in particular that worrying adjective. Well, ‘unrealised’ has been…
Spectator Competition: First thoughts
Competition 3403 invited you to provide an extract from a prequel to a well-known work of prose or poetry. It…
