The Old Horse and the braying donkey
NoViolet Bulawayo’s first novel We Need New Names,shortlisted for the Booker in 2013, was a charming, tender gem, suffused with…
A hard act to follow
The Oscar frenzy spent, it is worth reflecting on how easy writers and actors have it these days. The ancient…
Sweet dreams are made of this
As I’ve got older my tastes have generally become less refined. During my youth I dutifully slogged through Kafka, Camus…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. I live in the Hampshire countryside, in a lovely apartment where I have the use of an old walled…
Sins of the mothers
Frida Liu, the 39-year-old mother of a toddler named Harriet, has a very bad day which will haunt her for…
Barometer
Common knowledge Tensions in the visit of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to Jamaica led some to speculate that…
Radiant yesterdays
Richard Cohen was once one of our foremost book editors as well as being an Olympic sabre champion. Since moving…
2549: Obscurity
Doc writes: This is Columba’s last puzzle for The Spectator which we are pleased to publish now, three years after…
Puzzle no. 696
White to play and mate in two. Philip Hamilton Williams, Birmingham News, 1897. Answers should be emailed to chess@spectator.co.ukby Monday…
Solution to 2546: Picture book
NICOLAS POUSSIN painted ET IN ARCADIA EGO and A DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME. The latter inspired ANTHONY POWELL,…
A voyage of discovery
If only toasts and good wishes were weapons of war. At every serious repast I have attended since the invasion…
Cli-Fi plus
In Competition No. 3242, you were asked to submit a short story that is a mash-up of cli-fi with a…
A great talent-spotter
There’s no excuse for dullness, especially when writing about a life as eventful as Joseph Johnson’s, the publisher and bookseller…
Varsity battle
The 140th edition of the Varsity Match took place last month at the Royal Automobile Club in London’s Pall Mall.…
Sib
I never cared much for the word sibling, though I hardly knew why. The reason must be that it was…
Real life
Since recovering from Covid, I seem to have quietly been developing supernatural powers. At first I thought I had simply…
Kindred spirits
‘Dearest Gwen,’ writes Celia Paul, born 1959, to Gwen John, died 1939, ‘I know this letter to you is an…
A nation of seafarers
An ocean of clichés surrounds Britain’s maritime history, from Chaucer’s Shipman to the ‘little ships’ at Dunkirk. Tom Nancollas, whose…
The war’s next phase
A month in, and the war in Ukraine looks very different to how anyone expected. On the first day of…
Will we ever recover?
Modern British history can be divided into two parts: before Covid and after. That is the central pillar of this…