Hops and dreams
It is enough to drive a man to drink. The most glorious weather, so suitable for white Burgundy on a…
Small wonders
The Tesla Model 3 is an astounding achievement, but one thing baffles me: why do electric cars lack even the…
Scaffold
Whenever I turned on the news last weekend, my husband took to humming the March to the Scaffold from the…
Why has coronavirus fled London?
My partner, Julian, hovered at my shoulder on Friday as I tapped out my Times Saturday column (about travel quarantine).…
High life
Gstaad Well, Theodora did not wait and I missed yet another grandchild’s birth (the prettiest little blue-eyed thing ever, even…
Dear Mary
Q. Please can you tell me the correct etiquette about signing the visitors book after you are married? Obviously you…
Has lockdown worked?
Who occupies the post of chief adviser to the prime minister is not generally an issue of great interest to…
The puppy has won
Will the huge surge in demand for puppies and kittens during lockdown lead to a lot of abandoned pets when…
Letters
Disastrous decisions Sir: One cannot but agree wholeheartedly with Lionel Shriver (‘This is not a natural disaster’, 16 May). Given…
2459: 22 Down
Six unclued entries (three of three words, and one of two words) can be combined to make a quotation (in…
Portrait of the week
Home Open-air markets and car showrooms will be allowed to open from 1 June and other ‘non-essential’ shops from 15…
Swindlers’ art
A lost cause at the chessboard is hard to define, but, like obscenity, I know it when I see it.…
Solution to 2456: So American
Unclued lights are marches by John Philip SOUSA, as hinted by the title: 4/1A, 14/12, 20D, 33A/17, 37/29/26, and 41…
It’s not only Cummings whose fate is at stake
When the cabinet met by conference call on Monday, three ministers spoke in support of Dominic Cummings: Jacob Rees-Mogg, Suella…
Puzzle no. 606
Tamas Fodor — Michael Adams, Hull 2018. White to play. One from the puzzles section of Smerdon’s book, which I…
Doo-wop deity
He toured with Little Richard, sang with Van Morrison, inspired the Beatles and Paul Simon. Graeme Thomson talks to Dion, one of the last living links to the early days of street-corner rock ’n’ roll
If ‘whatever it takes’ means state share stakes in industry, so be it
Should the government be prepared to take equity stakes in major companies that will struggle to survive the current crisis?…
Uplift
If eight weeks in lockdown have brought out my baser impulses (biscuits by the sleeve, total renunciation of waistbands), it’s…
Bridge
One of the drawbacks of online bridge is the lack of après-bridge fun — those spontaneous drinking sessions where we…
The Spectator’s notes
At Dominic Cummings’s press conference on Monday, reporters tried two lines of attack. One was to behave like local detectives,…
The healing power of kindness
Nobody earns the right to respect just by having lived into old age, whenever that begins — it has happened…
