Life
Lovelier than a tree
In Competition No. 2953 you were invited to supply a sonnet that has the name of a tree hidden in…
Your problems solved
Q. A friend’s daughter is marrying soon. She and her husband-to-be, both art-lovers, have dispensed with a wedding list, instead…
West End churls
Cafe Monico, as if named by an illiterate playboy, is on Shaftesbury Avenue between The Curious Incident of the Dog…
High life
I always thought the Freuds a pretty sordid bunch, and after the latest revelations it seems I wasn’t far off.…
Long life
One of my first outings while recovering from a little stroke has been to the New London Theatre in Drury…
Long life
One of my first outings while recovering from a little stroke has been to the New London Theatre in Drury…
Low life
Before dashing out of the door and driving to Nice airport, I gave my eyebrows a quick trim with the…
Low life
Before dashing out of the door and driving to Nice airport, I gave my eyebrows a quick trim with the…
Eight hard words
I was humiliated in trying to make out the meaning of eight hard words. See how you do: claustration, edulcoration,…
Real life
The cottage in Surrey has fallen through, for the time being at least. Maybe I am going to be a…
On the money
Forced to depart Ascot earlier than usual to fulfil a cruise lecture booking on the fjords, I hadn’t reckoned with…
On the money
Forced to depart Ascot earlier than usual to fulfil a cruise lecture booking on the fjords, I hadn’t reckoned with…
Bridge
The 53rd European Teams Championship started last week in Budapest, 37 countries competing in an 11-day complete round robin. The…
The cultural hodgepodge that is Europe
If Geert Hofstede’s name is familiar to you, it might be from pop-science articles explaining a spate of Korean airliner…
2265: Pouring
The unclued Across lights (two of two words) are of a kind, as are the unclued Down ones, all verifiable…
No. 413
White to play. This is from Korchnoi-Karpov, Candidates Final, Moscow 1974. White’s next move destroyed the black position and led…
Who’s sabotaging my Leave campaign?
I’ve never been a great believer in karma. After all, in the absence of some kind of cosmic enforcer of…
Gossip from the top table
In the 1970s, when there were many fewer restaurants in London, Locket’s was much the best place to eat around…
Nonsensical
In Competition No. 2952 you were invited to submit nonsense verse of up to 16 lines on the subject of…
To 2262: Numbers game
The unclued Across lights are ANAGRAMS of French numbers (22: trente, 24: soixante, 26: sept, 29: onze, 43: trois) and…
The Battle for Britain
The post The Battle for Britain appeared first on The Spectator. Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment…
Your problems solved
Q. My daughters and I were recently taking our seats on an aeroplane. From behind us came the recorded refrain…
Little England
In the art of insult, the sting lies in the adjective, no matter how derogatory the noun. So it is…
The Battle for Britain
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Leningrad Lip
I had intended this week to write about the surprise surge by Mamedyarov which overturned all expectations in the elite…
