Life
I’m sick of pretending to be Irish
The French socialist must have burst her bladder getting a litre of percolator coffee down her to stop the Dutch…
I left my heart in Lake Como
Lake Como It doesn’t take long for me to fall in love. A young Adonis with a six-pack bounced on…
Aussie life
To someone wanting to escape persecution or poverty in a failed African state, the Mediterranean is an obstacle to be…
Language
What words do you put at the end of an email? Or at the end of a letter? (Does anyone…
Tears and terror on the front line of the French wildfires
Provence As soon as I opened my front door I could smell it. Along the path, flakes of white ash…
My top tips for Andy Burnham
I am cautiously optimistic about our new leader. For one thing, the fact that Mr Burnham went to Cambridge not…
Has the Ford Capri gone woke?
The Ford Capri is a paradigm of self-deception, but cars are men’s mirrors, and they want to be deceived by…
Why are vet bills so ruinously expensive?
Dennis refuses to step on to the scales at the vet. Perhaps he’s nervous about his holiday weight. The upshot…
Won’t someone please think of the French wine?
There was something surreal about my visit to La Cité du Vin, Bordeaux’s wine museum, last Saturday. From the top…
How to write your own Burnham thinkpiece
As seen in the New World When that More In Common poll dropped this week showing Andy Burnham comfortably ahead…
Spectator Competition: As you liken it
For Competition 3460 you were invited to write a sonnet beginning ‘Shall I compare thee to a [trisyllable of your…
My friend the failure – and the star
‘Altogether Elsewhere.’ The title page of an unpublished travel book caught my eye during a recent clear-out. The author, Matthew…
Fantasticks, calash, noctivagation – the wonderful words of Anthony Wood
When the King visited Oxford in September 1687, there was a bit of a shambles in the Bodleian, where they…
Dear Mary: what should I do if I run into my ex on holiday?
Q. A woman I have known for many years and who helped look after my mother has just had her…
‘Right-wingers know better food’: Rosina reviewed
The worst areas to eat in London are the best places to live. Hampstead, Chelsea, Chiswick, St John’s Wood: all…
Aussie life
In interesting news from the fickle world of celebrities, American-Albanian singer Dua Lipa, whose repertoire includes but is not limited…
Language
Writing in the Daily Telegraph James Morrow pointed out that the Albanese government suffers from ‘tall poppy syndrome’– dividing the…
