Life
Spectator Competition: Budding poets
Comp. 3441 invited you to use the opening of Philip Larkin’s poem ‘Trees’ as a starting point for your own.…
I love Cheltenham… but there’s only so much chaos I can take
Flipping heck! Thank goodness the Cheltenham Festival only happens once a year. There’s only so much chaos and controversy my…
Nothing beats a posh hospital room
The private hospital room in Chelsea was so relaxing I would have stayed for a week if it was affordable.…
The Epstein Files, the naked communist, and me
Dante’s Beach, Ravenna I was parked up in the Land Rover Defender on the narrow road that runs alongside the…
In days of war, we need trifles: Mezzogiorno reviewed
Mezzogiorno is a very serious, golden Italian restaurant inside the Corinthia London Hotel on Northumberland Avenue. Restaurants are increasingly gold…
The perfect 15-minute chocolate mousse
There’s an inherent pleasure in having something by heart. Poetry at school. Lines in plays. Song lyrics. The things that…
Dear Mary: how can I get my snobby mother to accept a live-in carer?
Q. I have a meeting scheduled with a possible business associate who asked me to buy a certain book on…
Arsenal’s boy wonder is the future of English football
It certainly never happened to me when I was a lad – even after a particularly insightful essay on the…
Louis Theroux needs to make a positive case for masculinity
I’ve always had a soft spot for Louis Theroux. I wouldn’t call him a friend, exactly, but I’ve known him…
Aussie life
I’ve probably enjoyed as many long lunches as any old adman, and in the 1980s and ’90s may well have…
Language
Are our governments guilty of ‘menticide’? This uncommon word is recorded from 1951, in which year it first appeared in…
Ladies love an eye patch
Kenya While we were loading two stud bulls and eight hoggets onto a lorry in my ranch’s yard in the…
Spectator Competition: No thanks
For Competition 3440 you were invited to supply a diplomatic thank-you letter for an unwanted gift. According to a recent…
Am I an extremist?
On Monday, the Communities Secretary Steve Reed rose in the House of Commons to unveil ‘Protecting What Matters’, the government’s…
I’m stuck in a house of madness
‘I want to learn Iranian,’ said my father, resolutely, as he watched the bombing on the television. ‘Farsi,’ I said,…
