Life
Pietersen’s unlikely Passage to India
A typical Merchant-Ivory film, their biography informs me, features ‘genteel characters’ whose lives are blighted by ‘disillusionment and tragic entanglements’.…
Treve triumphant
Aboard our coach from Rouen to Paris for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe our lady guide put it succinctly:…
We're still repeating the mistakes of the first world war
The time-honoured saying that England’s great battles have been won on the playing fields of Eton is a lot of…
Karl Miller called me his ‘great white hope’. I failed him, of course
As I think I said in this column the other week, I used to sneak into English lectures at University…
Is New York ready for Cydney the spaniel (and her Facebook friends)?
As the maître d’ ushered me into the packed restaurant, I leaned in close and intoned softly, so as not…
Cooking I find easy and satisfying. Preparing microwave dinners, on the other hand...
When some years ago I stopped having to go to an office, mainly because nobody wanted me to go to…
Bridge
Has Zia Mahmood cried wolf one too many times? He’s still the undisputed master of the ‘psyche’ — he has…
Fabian strategy
Good news. Fabiano Caruana will be coming to London this December to participate in the sixth London Classic. This will…
No. 335
White to play. This position is a variation from Aronian-Anand, Bilbao 2014. White needs a subtle move to complete the…
Magic touch
In Competition No. 2868 you were invited to take something mundane and filter it through the lens of magic realism.…
2183: Group theory
Each of 31 clues comprises a definition and a hidden consecutive jumble of the answer including one extra letter; the…
To 2180: Superfluous
FURBELOWS — given by initial letters of superfluous words in clues — can be read as FUR BELOW S, indicating…
You’ll regret not having a Human Rights Act when Labour get back in
I’ve been thinking about the Conservative party’s proposal for a Bill of Rights and am finding it difficult to make…
Battle for Britain
Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment below.
Why everywhere should be more like Essex
Apart from the Wye Valley, where I grew up, there are only two places in Britain I’d consider living: Kent…
Dear Mary: Can I run out on an apprenticeship for my dream interview?
Q. I have been trying to get an apprenticeship in fashion for over a year without success. I just had…
Proof that the Japanese know how to make great Bordeaux
Château Lagrange, a St Julien third growth, has the largest acreage of any Bordeaux classed growth. For much of the…
The fascinating history of dullness
At least I’ve got my husband’s Christmas present sorted out: the Dull Men of Great Britain calendar. It is no…
In praise of Japanese Bordeaux
Château Lagrange, a St Julien third growth, has the largest acreage of any Bordeaux classed growth. For much of the…
Everywhere should be more like Essex
Apart from the Wye Valley, where I grew up, there are only two places in Britain I’d consider living: Kent…
I felt so awful I almost prayed that we would crash
This is about life up high. Two weeks ago The Spectator had that rapscallion and mischief-maker Peter McKay writing about…
Chatting up Katherine Mansfield
I like the New Zealand writer Katherine Mansfield, who according to Virginia Woolf smelt like a civet cat and had…
Three years on and I thought I would soon be free of the Slobs
A letter arrives from the lawyers handling my defence in the phantom whiplash injury claim. It is now coming up…
Evan Davies is SO not Jeremy Paxman (thank God)
It’s unusual for somebody promoting his own television programme to tell you not to watch it, but that’s what Evan…
These are the ones to watch in the Prix de l’Abbaye and the Derby
Rightly, the authorities are doing all they can to find and discipline the disgruntled racegoer who threw a beer can…
