Photographing the extraordinary ordinariness of 1950s America
The career of the photographer and filmmaker Robert Frank stands in direct antithesis to the characteristics of his native Switzerland.…
Nan Shepherd’s lonely uphill struggle
‘It’s a grand thing to get leave to live’, perhaps the most famous line Nan Shepherd wrote, is carved in…
Describing the indescribable: news from the Western Front
At the close of the 1970s, I found a selection of postcards in an antique shop which had been sent…
Debussy, Tippett and Wagner: the musical treats of 2018
Claude Debussy died on 25 March 1918 to the sound of explosions. Four days earlier, the Kaiser’s army had deployed…
Indulgent rather than stinging satire: Brad’s Status reviewed
Brad’s Status is a midlife crisis film starring Ben Stiller as a nearly 50-year-old man whose status anxiety is through…
Podcasts have a long way to go to catch up with radio
It’s racing up the UK podcast charts, overtaking (as I write) the established favourites such as No Such Thing as…
As a musical, it’s overwhelming – politically, it’s an outrage: Hamilton reviewed
It’s all about the rhythm. Hamilton is a musical that tells the story of America’s foundation through the medium of…
I wish the BBC made more dramas like McMafia – but it’s too busy virtue-signalling
My third most fervent New Year wish — just after Litecoin goes to £20,000 and Jacob Rees-Mogg becomes PM —…
Taki: The truth about Ernest Hemingway
Gstaad When the snow finally stopped, the sublime, silent stars above made for dramatic viewing. Against silhouetted Alpine peaks, starry…
Jeremy Clarke: How I lost an afternoon to two magnums of mid-range champagne
As I stood there, I was reminded of the man of no fixed abode who, several years back, aged 68,…
Melissa Kite: Could I live without an MRI scan of my head?
Reluctantly, I decided I would have to throw away the MRI scan of my head. I’ve hung on to it…
Robin Oakley: Why Jeremy Clarkson should stick to cars
Jeremy Clarkson wrote recently about a day at Newbury. He declared: ‘Claiming that horses are different is like saying ants…
Why Jeremy Clarkson should stick to cars
Well, I had a very merry Christmas thank you — and I hope you did too — but as usual…
Game of the year
It is traditional that in my first column of the new year I review the previous 12 months and select…
no. 487
Black to play. This position is from Kasparov-Navara, St Louis 2017. How did Navara deal with Kasparov’s check? Answers to…
Best foot forward
In Competition No. 3029 you were invited to provide a new year’s resolution (or more than one) in verse. …
2340: Booboos
3 1A (eight words in total, one apostrophe) and 41 23 32 36 (seven words, including two accents) give two…
to 2338: Fone
The unclued lights are former and current F1 teams. First prize Ronald Morton, Basingstoke, HantsRunners-up Revd J. Thackray, Ipswich, Suffolk;…
The real reason I’m a target for the twitchfork mob
Shortly after midnight on 1 January my phone began to vibrate repeatedly. Happy New Year messages from absent friends? No,…
How to make economists fight like ferrets in a sack
One of the funniest passages of writing I have read in the past few years appears within the pages of…
Mary solves your problems: A secret school scrapbook discovered by the housemaster
Q. At my son’s school the boys keep a clandestine leatherbound book known as ‘The Bible’, a sort of Rogues…
How Christmas lunch became Christmas dinner
It was a culinary triumph. My hosts do not spend much time in the UK, and are determined to entertain…
The phrase that is almost universally misused
Writing about Meghan Markle and the Duchess of Cambridge in the Sunday Times, India Knight wrote: ‘I can’t help but…
Simon Collins
Thanks to the announcement of the engagement of two foreign celebrities 2017 ended on a cheery note for many Australians.…
