Let’s talk about pecs
Jack Reacher is back on the screen and aficionados of the hugely successful Lee Child airport thrillers in which he…
Everything under the sun
Christopher Howse is bowled over by the astonishingartefacts in the British Museum’s Stonehenge exhibition
Barometer
Facing the music Police in New Zealand played Barry Manilow records to truck drivers in an attempt to persuade them…
Steak Diane
Cooking for romance is no laughing matter. The stakes are high. Get it right and woo the love of your…
‘The Rothschilds of the East’
David Abulafia admires the shrewdness, generosity and panache of the Sassoons over many generations
Love is …
In Competition No. 3236, you were invited to submit a poem that begins ‘Oh my love is like…’ . From…
Puzzle no. 670
Black to play. Shuvalova–Pavlidou, Women’s World Blitz Championship, 2021. White was winning, but has just played 89 g3-g4? No resignation…
Letters
A health-care disaster Sir: Kate Andrews’s piece on who really controls the NHS (‘Waiting game’, 12 February) gives us a…
2543: Parts of speech
Unclued lights form a progressive set, plus the name of the speaker. Across 1 Talk shortly about present-day veg…
From pirates to princes
The Normans had an astonishingly good run. Not only did they take over England in 1066, of course, but they…
Family misfortunes
The journalist and broadcaster Christina Patterson’s memoir begins promisingly. She has a talent for vivid visual description, not least: ‘We…
Low life
Early on St Valentines Day I walked down to the car park where the raindrops were knocking off the young…
The four billion people question
Demographers are attached to their theories. The field’s most enduring is the ‘demographic transition’, whereby modernisation inexorably lowers a society’s…
The turf
Certain sections of the media love to run a knocking story and when champion trainer Paul Nicholls’s horses failed to…
Real life
‘Do you have any questions?’ said the man at the insurance company after an hour of me trying to take…
Diary
Foreign trips can offer a sense of perspective. Heading to Saudi Arabia, I prepare for my first stint of diplomacy.…
Portrait of the week
Home Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, made ready for a Russian invasion of Ukraine by cutting short a planned visit…
Contemplating loss
Contemplating a lost position is a bit like having sauce down your shirt. It is annoying in itself, but worse,…
High life
Gstaad I cross-country ski the old-fashioned way, not skating but on machine-made narrow tracks. It is known to be the…
Smart and smarter
Tyler Cowen is a man who leaves you at once in awe and perturbed. He is the Holbert L. Harris…
Ways of escape
The first novel in more than 20 years from the essayist and cultural analyst Pankaj Mishra is as sharp, provocative…
