Taki: In praise of French women
I spent the better part of two sunny days indoors writing about authenticity for a Greek magazine, a strange subject…
Jeremy Clarke: The power of ‘Bonjour’
In France, or in Provence at least, polite rule number one is to say hello. You must offer a distinct…
Melissa Kite: The death of humour
A vet has accused me of a ‘hate crime’ for making a joke about vets. On the basis that everything…
Why I’ll chain myself to an earthmover at Kempton Park
I have never been one for system betting but one little piece of guidance returns to my mind at the…
Bridge
The first home tournament of 2018 was last week’s four-day European Open Trials. Ten selected pairs played 216 boards at…
Willing to wound
‘Willing to wound and yet afraid to strike,’ wrote Alexander Pope about Atticus. Those lines more or less describe the…
no. 489
White to play. This position is from O. Howell-Pickersgill, Hastings 2017/18. White now terminated proceedings abruptly. What was the key move?…
Rude food
In Competition No. 3031 you were invited to provide a review by a restaurant critic that is tediously loaded with…
2342: Decorative
Two unclued lights are terms for the same style. One, consisting of two words, forms a cryptic indication of each…
solution
A beastly business The quote is 1A/92/18D from the poem ‘A Visit from St Nicholas’. The theme was the names…
Why my pet dog Leo had to go
Readers may recall that the Young family welcomed a new addition to the household about two years ago: a Hungarian…
A nice, cuddly NHS would be bad for us
Recently the NHS postponed a large number of non-urgent operations to cope with what is known as the ‘annual winter…
Mary solves your problems: How can I get over my smartphone separation anxiety?
Q. I will be 80 in March and all my friends will expect to be asked to the celebration. My…
Is the great vintage of 2015 retreating into itself
We were pondering the relationship between military history and wine vintages. It is extraordinary to think that the French managed…
Where does Donald Trump’s new favourite word come from?
In Polite Conversation, Jonathan Swift presents dialogues made up of clichés, banalities and catchphrases. When Miss Notable makes a remark…
Australian letters
Dark ages revisited? Sir: The latest, frenzied, hysterical and vitriolic attack on President Trump by the media, over his “alleged”…
Strong men armed?
G. K. Chesterton wrote in The Everlasting Man that Christianity has died many times but always somehow – miraculously –…
Brown study
The tentacles of The Spectator Australia Investigative Journalism Unit extend far beyond its heavily fortified premises in Canberra. For example,…
Catholics needed in the fight for freedom
Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa – how much longer does the breast-beating have to go on? The Royal…
Australian notes
Memo to Republicans: Australia is not a colony The fundamental difference between Australia as a ‘colony’ and every other colony…
Rembrandt live
The link between music and painting is not a direct one. The aural and visual impacts of the two art…
Conserve what?
If, like me, you are a small government, strong borders and national defence, lots of free speech and as little…
On culture, parenting and education
The Sydney Morning Herald recently announced that the NSW Education Minister, Rob Stokes, is considering opening up the selective schools…
Far East diary
Ever willing to challenge nanny staters, just before Christmas I travelled to Bangkok to advise regional consumer organisations on coordinating…
