Language
The word ‘map’ no longer means just a bit of cartography – it now also means ‘minor attracted person’. In…
High life
None of this would have happened had I accepted my neighbour’s invitation to dine with a Swiss billionaire banker, or…
Must Charles change?
When something starts to be said with such frequency that it fast becomes the conventional wisdom, one should pause, step…
Real life
A lot has been going wrong lately in the support group I’ve been attending for more than 20 years. I…
Low life
The end that we knew must come eventually, the end we dreaded so much that we could barely think about…
Barometer
Sovereign’s states When she died, Elizabeth II was Queen of 14 nations other than the UK: Antigua and Barbuda; Australia;…
The Spectator’s Notes
‘So it is come at last, the distinguished thing!’ exclaimed Henry James on his deathbed. Such a thought is reflected…
Chicken pie
Laurie Colwin wrote: ‘No one who cooks, cooks alone. Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is…
A lesson in self-publicity
The death of Her Majesty raises the question of a commemoration of her extraordinary years of service. Augustus ruled the…
Redemption songs
Rehab: The Musical opens with a boyband star, Kid Pop, getting busted for possession of cocaine. The judge sentences him…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. The Queen had the knack of making you feel that you were the only person in the room. At…
Dynasty rules in the US too
I suppose it was inevitable that with the death of HM the Queen certain floodgates would open. During her reign…
Royal handbags
In this period of national mourning, it may seem frivolous to comment on the late Queen’s handbag. After seven decades…
Don’t blame the badgers
My dog was bitten by an adder last week. Jessie had been snuffling around in bracken a few yards from…
Letters
Majestic memories Sir: The sad news of the death of Queen Elizabeth II took me back 70 years to my…
Politics is on pause
Politics is in suspended animation. The only proceedings in parliament are the tens of thousands of mourners moving through Westminster…
Portrait of the week
Home The body of Queen Elizabeth lay in state at Westminster Hall, in a coffin draped in the royal standard…
The turf
It takes a little bit of magic to train any racehorse. It takes plenty of magic to keep a 13-year-old…
Time to think about holidays
Having returned from a fortnight’s break, I wonder if we get holidays all wrong. In northern Europe, the custom is…
Never mind terrorising the Treasury, let’s see some energy-policy action
At His Majesty’s Treasury, it’s all looking a bit like Year Zero in revolutionary Cambodia. Kwasi Kwarteng’s first act was…
