‘I don’t know how ever Jerry stands it’: diary of a world war one artillery man
My sister’s boyfriend is a solitary man and easily overwhelmed by another’s presence. On his rare visits he flits in…
Why I could kiss Mark Zuckerberg
Since posting some of my research into the RSPCA on Facebook, I now better understand the way social networking works.…
Did the BHA call it right on equine flu?
The pre-war Fabians Sidney and Beatrice Webb apparently had a pre-marriage agreement. It wasn’t like today’s Hollywood prenups, designed to…
Bridge
Two of the best (and most enjoyable) Pairs and Teams tournaments of the year have just finished, and I miss…
Homage to Kramnik
The former world champion Vladimir Kramnik recently announced his retirement from competitive chess. He is one of the greats of the…
no. 541
Black to play. This position is from Gelfand–Kramnik, Berlin 1996. This is one of Kramnik’s finest finishes. Can you spot…
What’s not to love
In Competition No. 3085 you were invited to submit a poem in dispraise of Valentine’s Day. The day is said…
2395: Concise crossword
The seven clues below have to be interpreted cryptically and are then entered in the grid where they will fit.…
to 2392: Beknighted
The unclued lights (10/1D, 11, 23/38, 29D/28 and 39) received knighthoods or a DBE in the recent New Year’s Honours List.…
If children want to protest against climate change, why not do it at the weekend?
![School children gather in Sydney last November to demand the government takes action on climate change [MARK METCALFE/GETTY IMAGES]](https://www.spectator.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Striking_children.jpg?w=410&h=275&crop=1)
Thousands of schoolchildren are planning to go on ‘strike’ on Friday to protest about government inaction on climate change. Called…
We don’t need more technology, we need better technology
![Video-conferencing could revolutionise how we work – so why have we failed to invest in it properly? [GETTY IMAGES]](https://www.spectator.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/GettyImages_517017732.jpg?w=410&h=275&crop=1)
I’d like to propose a new scientific institution: the IUT, or Institute of Underrated Technology. Rather than trying to invent…
Dear Mary: How can I get my annoying children to answer my texts?
![[ISTOCKPHOTO.COM]](https://www.spectator.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/iStock_482988416.jpg?w=410&h=275&crop=1)
Q. I have learned through a third party that a friend, who is feeling particularly insecure these days, has not been…
Only the south offers beer lovers a decent pint
We were discussing beer. It is a cheerful subject so I made an appropriate point. In recent years, the quality…
What the sports pages mean by ‘marquee’?
Ordinarily my husband is punctilious in keeping the pages of the Telegraph straight, especially when it is read by other…
The man the Left fears most
The seat of Warringah, on Sydney’s northern beaches, has never been marginal and has always been held for the conservative…
Aux bien pensants
After the dry comes the wet ‘Remember, after the big dry comes the big wet,’ presciently warned salt-of-the-earth South Australian…
Secularism – the new firebrand religion
The Australian Senate is currently considering a bill sponsored by the ALP’s Senator Wong that, if accepted, will amend the…
Undercurrents
Former Melbourne detective Colin McLaren’s cold case book into the 2009 disappearance of Bob Chappell and the 2010 conviction of…
Australian diary
Although it is a winter of discontent in Europe, there was little overt evidence of it in Vienna. It was…
Fall of the House of Adler
‘Look here, what’s this book on my desk about Al Capone?’ ‘Why, Vice-Chancellor, it’s one of our flagship publications from…
Ramsay versus the Kaiser
Politically active people don’t see eye-to-eye on many issues these days, but something they all seem to agree on is…
Business/Robbery etc
Who needs parliament to make laws when there are clever judges who reckon they can do a far better job…
The Lion, the Witch & the Closet
With impeccable timing, increasingly-eccentric Defence Minister Christopher Pyne this week leapt out of some bizarre theological closet to declare that…
Gerald Murnane
I know I’m a bit late getting to the party; the party that has formed to honour the writing of…
