Progress is painful
One of my long-held beliefs is that evolutionary biology should be taught extensively in schools. There may be some objections…
How are the mighty fallen
Greg Woolf didn’t know his book would come out during an urban crisis. Thanks to coronavirus, Venice’s population, for example,…
High life
I just read a piece by Scott McConnell in the American Conservative, a magazine we co-founded 18 years ago. He…
Swirling meditations on language
There is a particular sub-genre of books which are witty and erudite, comic and serious and often of a bibliophilic…
The Streisand effect
There is no sight so compelling as one that would be hidden. I am fascinated by the Streisand effect, named…
Real life
‘Are you seriously telling me you would rather meet up on Zoom than in reality?’ I asked a friend as…
2465: Definitely amusing
Unclued lights (three of two words, two hyphened) have something in common, verifiable in Brewer. Across 4 Everybody agreed to…
Puzzle no. 612
White to play. Giri–Nepomniachtchi, Chessable Masters 2020. Giri has sacrificed a knight to lure the black king forward. Which move…
The Spectator’s Notes
There are far more Chinese students in British universities than there are from the entire Commonwealth. Many universities have been…
Solution to 2462: Over and Out?
The seventeen entries clued by definition only required removal of the abbreviation BR ( = Britain), in keeping with the…
Schadenfreude
In Competition No. 3156 you were invited to supply a piece of verse or prose on the subject of schadenfreude,…
The turf
It wasn’t so much a Derby victory this year as an act of grand larceny. Aidan O’Brien isn’t just a…
Bridge
What goes through a world-class player’s mind when he or she stops to think for an age during a hand?…
Escape into fantasy
The lockdown we have been enduring has at times felt drawn from the pages of a children’s book. The eerie…
Low life
Bernafay Wood B&B, Somme, France I came up on the TGV yesterday from the Midi to northern France and it…
Scouse style
Richard Bratby on Britain’s oldest and ballsiest orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, which has taken on everyone from gang leaders to Derek Hatton
No one loves a despot
Displaying the pristine neutrality that has made her such a popular figure, Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis apparently tweeted the following last…
Neil Young: Homegrown
Grade: B+ Neil Young has been mining his own past very profitably for a long time now, disinterring a seemingly…
How the Spanish cover their faces, or don’t
We self-critical British should never forget that other nations are pretty crazy too. I write this from Andalusia, Spain; and…
No laughing matter
The RSC’s 2014 version of Much Ado is breathtaking to look at. Sets, lighting and costumes are exquisitely done, even…
Can the young avoid the Covid crash?
Coronavirus is deadlier for the old than the young. But for the young, it is economically devastating. A third of…
Letter from Texas
Austin My first Independence Day in the US for many years. Usually I’d be in Paris avoiding Texas heat. My…
Cricket balls
The Prime Minister recently blamed the delay in the resumption of amateur cricket on the ball itself, calling it ‘a…
A bailout for the arts is good but reopening would have been better
The government’s £1.57 billion lifeline for the cultural sector was bigger than most practitioners were expecting — and drew a…
