Kitchen-table opera
Covid has been many things to the arts — most of them unprintable. A plague, a scourge, a disaster from…
Me, myself and Thai
Lockdown is hurting everyone except the chickens. I have bought them a conservatory because Philippa, a Light Sussex, looks like…
No more Mr Nasty
‘I used to be Mr Nasty! That was good! Mr Nasty was easy!’ Jeremy Paxman bellows at Michael Palin on…
Quite smitten
As his biographer, I feel obliged to quote John Updike’s wise sayings — among them the first rule in his…
No one wants to know
If the homage wasn’t clear from the title, Tana French makes sure throughout The Searcher, her seventh novel and second…
Puzzle no. 631
White to play and mate in two moves. Composed by Sam Loyd, 1857. Answers should be emailed to chess@spectator.co.uk by…
Bridge
The rubber bridge world has lost one of its best and most flamboyant players; David Herman was an emaciated, elegant…
Truth is in the eye of the beholder
Ever since I saw him in Pensacola, Florida the other week, Donald J. Trump will not leave me alone. Each…
How to keep the UK united
Tory MPs are already starting to talk about May’s various elections. Boris Johnson’s first post-Covid electoral test will take place…
The Spectator’s Notes
‘Frost & Lewis’. It sounds like a programme amalgamating two of the most famous TV detectives. The former diplomat, Lord…
Liberty or death?
Well thank goodness for that, eh? Just as we reached our darkest hour and resigned ourselves to an endless series…
If taxes must rise, Sunak should pick on private equity
It’s not axiomatic that taxes must rise to pay for the pandemic, if you seriously believe the surge in growth,…
to 2481: Octet
The octet associated with CHERRY STONES (19) is: tinker (1A), tailor (40), soldier (20), sailor (15), rich man (6A), poor…
Diary
It is such a relief that Dominic Cummings has gone. Not for the sake of the country or the government…
2484: Troubled
The unclued lights are of a kind. Across 9 Go in with force, showing initiative (10) 14 Cast is enormous,…
The wrong reset
The psychodrama in No. 10 is badly timed. The government has used emergency powers to ban meetings, church services and…
Wild life
Laikipia As the train pulled into Victoria my wife Claire, back home on the farm in Kenya, revealed that a…
Low life
At dawn, starving, I drove to a commercial laboratory in the town centre where five phials of blood were taken…
Meaningful silences
Shirley Hazzard was in her late twenties when, in 1959, somewhat diffidently, she submitted her first short story to the…
Seriously overrated
Should the world be faster or slower? This is a question relevant to global economics, politics and culture. But not…
