Life
Bagels that even New York can’t beat: Panzer’s Delicatessen reviewed
That Panzer’s Delicatessen in St John’s Wood is called Panzer’s – for the instrument of Blitzkrieg – is mad, until…
The maverick magnificence of Henry Pollock
‘Gosh he seems full of himself’ was how my friend’s wife reacted when she came in to see Henry Pollock…
Dear Mary: Do we turn up at a party even though no written invitation arrived?
Q. An extremely old friend is a successful purveyor of high-end goods. Last time we saw him he invited us…
What’s so fresh about ‘fresh hell’?
‘What fresh hell can this be?’ Dorothy Parker would ask if the doorbell rang. Now fresh hell has been freshly…
After 30 years, it’s farewell to The Turf
It was Frank Johnson who as The Spectator’s editor asked me to mix my then day job as the BBC’s…
Lord Young goes to Washington
I’m writing this from Washington, D.C., where I’ve spent the best part of a week talking to politicos and thinktankers…
My family dinner table debates about Gaza
Dante’s Beach, Ravenna I was in the Land Rover Defender with Rita, my youngest daughter (16), parked up near Dante’s…
Did our B&B guests smell a rat?
As I was showing a couple from Lincolnshire to their room, I smelt a rat. I don’t mean metaphorically, about…
Aussie life
My local post office is one of four on Sydney’s lower north shore scheduled for closure before Christmas, and everybody…
Language
John writes to ask about the word ‘noisome’? Does it (he asks) have anything to do with noise? The answer…
Cullen skink is comfort in a bowl
They say not to judge a book by its cover – but what about judging a recipe by its name?…
How to drink sake
There is a fellow called Anthony Newman who is fascinated by drink, as a consumer, a producer and an intellectual.…
LSD was a fuss about nothing
The flight from Nice to Bristol was packed. As soon as the doors closed I spotted a hummingbird hawk-moth bumping…
The war over my grass verges
Hanging a pair of gates at the rear of the house gave us so much satisfaction, it suddenly seemed strange…
Dear Mary: How do we tie down an invitation to our friends’ holiday home?
Q. Some friends of ours have an amazing house on the coast in Kenya. Every time we see them they…
My portable charger obsession
A femtosecond, derived from the Danish word femte meaning ‘fifteen’, is a unit of time in the International System of…
