Cornish pasties
This week, world leaders are doing what countless Brits do every summer: unpacking their bags in a charming corner of…
Letters
Trust us Sir: I refute Charles Moore’s assertions (‘Broken Trust’, 5 June) that the National Trust frowns on local expertise,…
Gossip abounds
In December 1979, the 28-year-old Hugo Vickers, dining with a friend, declared: ‘I see little point to life these days.’…
Kitsch tomfoolery
The latest movie to turn into a musical is Amélie, from 2001, about a Parisian do-gooder or ‘godmother of the…
Black Midi: Cavalcade
Grade: A– Imagine a really disgusting and immoral scientific experiment in which the members of Weather Report, the Mahavishnu Orchestra,…
Diary
My diary has been filled with dental appointments, reflecting a truism that American dentists pray for British teeth. The tally…
Lashings of irony
Sam Riviere has established himself as a seriously good poet who doesn’t take himself too seriously: his first collection, 81…
Only half the story
One of the more surreal conversations I have had with a musical hero of mine came in 2017 when I…
to 2507: Knightly?
The unclued lights are characters and places associated with King Arthur. First prize Belinda Bridgen, London NW8 Runners-up John Samson,…
Community spirit
The years after the first world war were a boom time for utopian communities. As the survivors of the conflict…
Mothers and daughters
A new novel by Esther Freud — her ninth — raises the perennial but always fascinating question about the use…
Bad blood
In 2016, Arifa Akbar’s elder sister, Fauzia, died suddenly in the Royal Free Hospital, London at the age of 45.…
Where is my mind?
The Father is an immensely powerful film about dementia starring Sir Anthony Hopkins, who was asleep in his bed in…
The Spectator’s Notes
There is much to be said for meritocracy, and Adrian Wooldridge, in his new book, The Aristocracy of Talent, says…
G7 is right: business should pay tax wherever it make profits
Companies should willingly pay tax wherever they generate profits — this column has long argued — because it’s fair they…
Across the universe
‘Peace — slept for 14 hours. The roar of the sea slashing the rocks — is there any more soothing…
The turning point of the war
If you can tell the difference between Jack Hawkins and John Mills, and between a Stuka and a Sten gun,…
This G7 summit matters more than most
It’s risky planning a trip to the British seaside at any time of year. But if the weather forecast is…
The only way is Israel
Tragically it wasn’t my turn to review when Channel 5’s groundbreaking Anne Boleyn came out so you’ll never find out…
Coming up roses
At the turning point of Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s Der Rosenkavalier, all the clocks stop. Octavian has arrived…
2510: Prom session
Twelve symmetrically disposed unclued entries comprise three distinct interlinked quartets. Across 1 Precise conjecture about coin-flip, oddly (8) 6…
The back-rank mate
Compared with Anastasia’s mate, or an epaulette mate, the humble back-rank mate is named without imagination or whimsy. It is…
In search of an ending
There are many Symphonies No. 10 by Gustav Mahler, or none. The situation is rare, if not unique, in the…
Puzzle No. 657
Black to play. Vodopyanov–Kantsyn, 1974. Two bishops up, White appears to have everything covered. Which move allows Black to force…
