Life
Could Thomas Tuchel be the one?
You would have to be living a very sheltered life not to have noticed that the Premier League this season…
Not worth its salt: Wingmans reviewed
I see this column as an essay on cultural polarisation: artisanal butter can only take you so far into wisdom.…
Dear Mary: Can I regift an unwanted tin of sweets?
Q. A kind villager gave us a jolly circular tin of sweets for Christmas. We are both overweight and would…
Can I be cancelled twice?
One of the biggest regrets of my life was saying yes when Jo Johnson asked if I wanted to be…
Aussie life
It is customary for magazines like this to devote some of the final issue of the year to an appraisal…
Language
The clever lexicographers at the Australian National Dictionary Centre have chosen ‘Colesworths’ as their Word of the Year 2024. They…
The Twelve Hates of Christmas
I have set my husband a Christmas game. He wins a small chocolate sprout each time he spots a word…
The Spectator’s 2024 Christmas quiz
Events, dear boy In 2024: 1. Twenty-two tons of what were stolen from Neal’s Yard in London? 2. Down…
Bridge | 14 December 2024
Last year, my new year’s resolution was to make fewer careless mistakes at the bridge table. Easier, surely, than cutting…
My racing reads of the year
You didn’t want to approach Davy Russell before a race. He spurned selfies with owners and didn’t talk to the…
Retracing the steps of slaves in Benin
Ouidah, Benin On a free afternoon in Benin, I decide to walk the slave route in Ouidah, the port from…
What will become of artists who paint?
What hope is there for artists following the sale recently of the robot Ai-Da’s portrait of Alan Turing, entitled ‘A.I.…
I shouldn’t be allowed to go to church
‘Life is changed, not ended,’ said the slogan on the lectern as the priest told his flock what to think…
The strange, beautiful Christmas I spent alone
My parents gave up on Christmas altogether once I left home for university. They had never been people for celebrations…
