A call to arms
’night, Mother is a two-hander that opens like a comedy sketch. ‘I’m going to kill myself, Mama,’ says Jessie. She’s…
Sky’s the limit
When I promised my 13-year-old son, Charlie, that we would go to as many QPR games as possible in 2021-22…
Showtime
Until 1881, HMS Pinafore was the second-longest-running show in West End history. Within a year of its première it had…
The nature of Japan
From ‘The rule of taste’, Anthony Thwaite, 6 March 1959: The society of aristocrats, connoisseurs, wise men and heroes which…
Nature vs nurture
The ‘social mobility tsar’ Katharine Birbalsingh has suggested that children, born evil, ‘need to be taught right from wrong and…
Solution to 2528: Not to Lose
The unclued lights are all phrases in Chambers meaning ‘HURRY UP — or No T(ime) to Lose’. First prize Andy…
Barometer
Another minute Addressing COP26 in Glasgow, the Prime Minister claimed it was ‘one minute to midnight’ in the fight against…
Puzzle No. 678
White to play. Short-Ye, Sanjin Hotel Cup 2004. A snappy finish from a game in Winning. Which move allowed Short…
All or nothing
Pan’s name is thought to derive from ‘paean’, the ancient Greek verb meaning ‘to pasture’. His half-man, half-goat form reflected…
Bagpipes
Many people love to hate bagpipes. Everyone from William Shakespeare to Alfred Hitchcock has held them in contempt. For some,…
A mysterious muse
If you were to glance only briefly at the title of the Irish poet Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s prose debut you…
Diary
COP26 is not your typical power summit, because world leaders, NGOs and hacks are all in the same scrum. Outside…
So much lost for so little
In 1536 there were 850 monastic houses in England and Wales; just four years later they were all gone. The…
Portrait of the week
Home Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, told delegates to the 26th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework…
High life
There’s a narrow stretch of Chelsea, south of the King’s Road from Oakley Street to Ormonde Gate, that reminds me…
Cold comfort
The COP26 summit is unlikely to be an outright flop. There has been no shortage of drama, with speakers seeming…
Factory boss
To many people Tony Wilson was a bigmouth Mancunian, brash music impresario and jobbing television presenter. But to the generation…
Low life
The day after Catriona was fitted with a plaster cast and crutches, her elder sister arrived from the UK for…
Sisters in crime
If you’re after jewel thieves, bank robbers and gold smugglers, look no further than Caitlin Davies’s Queens of the Underworld.…
Old school ties
It is incredibly hard to convey the fleeting invincibility and passionate self-significance that we feel on the cusp of adulthood.…
A man in a hurry
After a wretched childhood, H.G. Wells was ruthless in making up for lost time, says Frances Wilson
Does the doctor really need to see you now?
Only later, perhaps even a decade later, as the pandemic of 2020-22 shrinks in our rear-view mirror, may we be…
Oh dear, Abba’s new album is a bit of a dog: Voyage reviewed
Time has been very kind to Abba. No one back in the 1970s thought of them as geniuses. But they've even lost the talent for writing memorable tunes
