The strange case of the everlasting bonfire
The bonfire burned and burned, choking out black smoke, and when my headache got so bad I could barely see…
Will Boris Johnson stand up for the white farmers in Zimbabwe?
Laikipia After a year of peace and plentiful rain, my farm in Kenya is fantastic. Peace, rain — leave…
Farewell to Australia’s greatest horse
Storm clouds may be rumbling over racing’s future financing in terms of gambling legislation but 2019 offered no shortage of…
Bridge
For Christmas this year I am giving you a double-dummy problem. Too generous, I hear you cry — but better…
Gay giraffes and dead in ditches: The Spectator 2019 quiz
They said it In 2019, who said: 1. ‘You have stolen my dreams and my childhood.’ 2. ‘I didn’t sweat…
A multitude of contests
Besides the Grand Chess Tour final, an abundance of chess was played at this year’s London Chess Classic. More than…
No. 585
Black to play. Ilfeld & Vachier-Lagrave–Picot & McShane. Pro-Biz Cup, London 2019. My move. White threatens checkmate with Qc4-g8, so…
The night before
In Competition No. 3129 you were invited to submit a poem entitled ‘’Twas the Night Before Brexit’. That seasonal classic…
Magical Mystery Tour
A quotation (in ODQ), starting on the appropriate side of the grid, runs clockwise around the perimeter. The other unclued…
to 2436: The Devil’s Own
The unclued lights are all words derived from names in the work of Charles Dickens. First prize David Brewis, Windsor,…
Roger Alton’s highlights from a magical year in sport
We don’t half take a lot for granted. We may look up to the Aussies, kowtow to the Americans and…
Christmas with my brother
Ever since I was a child, I’ve associated Christmas with my mentally disabled brother Chris. Technically, he’s my half-brother —…
This food needs a little less grandeur, and a little more love: Simpson’s in the Strand reviewed
Simpson’s in the Strand stopped serving breakfast in 2017, after it had been renovated to stop it smelling of cabbage.…
Technological progress is as messy as Darwinian evolution
There is a famous chart which shows the time it took for various technologies to be adopted by 50 million…
Christmas without God in the Appalachians
Christmas: without being grand and Proustian, this is a season when time present inevitably takes one back to time past.…
Dear Mary, from Joan Collins: How do I stop fans asking for selfies in the powder room?
From Dame Joan CollinsQ. Invariably, when I escape to the ladies’ room or powder room or restroom (whatever the current…
What were the words that defined 2019?
‘Come off it,’ said my husband when I told him that upcycling was the word of the year. His response…
Sic note
Google’s language skills (sic) We all make mistakes. To quote the Augustan satirist Alexander Pope, ‘to err is humanistic’. But…
You say ‘diversity’. I hear quotas
Ever wonder where all this talk of ‘diversity’ started? Well, it actually dates back some four decades to a 1978…
Simon Collins
I’m starting to think the Victorians were right about children. And when I say Victorians, I’m not talking about that…
Natalia Aroyan and friend at Sydney Opera House
It’s summer in Sydney, so there is an Opera Season. Two productions by the distinguished British director David McVicar –…
Summer books
The year has been an odd one for books, with some trying to make sense of the political landscape and…
Lighting bushfires
The recent tragic bushfires reignited the argument about global warming – the science is settled – and burnt the Green-Left…
The Kurds troubled way
Pictures of Kurdish women fighters alongside men surprised many in the West and the October withdrawal of American forces from…
