Gaslight
Gaslight has been a useful word meaning ‘to manipulate a person by psychological means into questioning his or her own…
Speed talking
When I first heard Abba’s magnificent 1982 swansong ‘The Day Before You Came’, I’d never come across the Americanised use…
The Spectator’s Notes
Why is it wrong, some ask, for senior British businessmen, former civil servants etc to work for Huawei UK? After…
Portrait of the week
Home Britain went into a frenzy of iconoclasm. The statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square was hidden by the…
Low life
I took a table on the terrace of the reopened bar and ordered une pression from the waitress. ‘Back to…
Some like it hot
These days it is as hard to imagine Sichuanese food without chillies as it is to imagine Italian food without…
Sneezles and wheezles
In Competition No. 3153 you were invited to recruit a well-known children’s writer to explain Covid-19 to their young audience.…
Models and bottles
The spectacular extravagance of the VIP nightclub ‘experience’ could be the last bonfire of the vanities, says Lynn Barber
Wheels on fire
Formula One motor racing is the perennial, worldwide contest that most reliably gratifies hero-worshipping, power-worshipping, money-worshipping, technology-worshipping ghouls, and some…
Will she, won’t she?
Publishers everywhere are looking for the new Sally Rooney, which is odd since as far as I know the old…
The road to Rome
Matthew Kneale is much drawn to people of the past. In his award-winning English Passengers, he captured the sensibilities of…
Playing tag and Pooh sticks
We live in an urban world. It’s a statistical fact. The great outdoors for most of us is a thing…
The thrill of the chase
A guide to reading in lockdown. My involvement with crime and mystery fiction started when I was four. The first…
Courting danger
When Queen Alexandra chose her ladies in waiting she prudently surrounded herself with elderly and plainish ones, who did not…
Gnarly men and pretty boys
If you study History of Art, people generally assume you’re a nice, conscientious, plummy-voiced girl. Sometimes, people are right. It…
Hidden figures
The statue-topplers reveal a Eurocentric view of the world that ignores the achievements of black and Asian luminaries, says Tanjil Rashid
The Peter Cook of pop
In 1992 Prince released a single called ‘My Name Is Prince’. On first hearing it seemed appropriately regal. Cocky, even.…
Going through the motions
Resistance stars Jesse Eisenberg and tells the true story of how mime artist Marcel Marceau helped orphaned Jewish children to…
Scouts
Police were no match for the Black Lives Matter mob that pulled down a statue of Edward Colston last week…
Chequered histories
As statues are scrutinised, the tensions that existed within historical figures are thrown into relief. You can admire Churchill’s leadership…
Bridge
I am so useless in defence it’s embarrassing. My partners all say the same thing: slow down and think. I…
2462: Over and Out?
The seventeen entries with definition-only clues are to be treated according to a symmetrically disposed theme which has to be…
Puzzle no. 609
White to play. Tolush–Aronson, Moscow 1957. Strangely, this quick win was once wrongly attributed to Alekhine. How did White exploit…
Breast is best
This week, BBC1 brought us a three-part dramatisation of an ‘unprecedented crisis’ in recent British life. Among other things, it…
Solution to 2459: 22 down
22D was TABLEWARE, and the quotation from Ralph Waldo Emerson reads: ‘The louder he talked of his honour, the faster…
