Low life
Valencia was a furnace. During the short ride from the airport, the taxi driver supplemented his chat about the weather…
Support
The Foreword didn’t bode well. This was on the first page of The Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices. It…
Real life
Two months after I cancelled Sky, a strange letter arrived in the post. ‘We are writing to you because we…
Rog apart, Wimbledon 2017 was a disgrace
For obvious reasons this column always welcomes ‘King Roger Rules The World’ headlines on the back pages. And the front…
Winter is nearly here – bring on the body count
As a Game of Thrones fan, I feel ambivalent about the fact that the saga is finally wending its way…
The turf
A woman I once encountered at the dining table whose prime years were clearly behind her described herself as ‘approaching…
Let May govern
It used to be said that loyalty was the Conservatives’ secret weapon. While other parties might descend into internecine warfare,…
Australian letters
Stats 101 Sir: Jeremy Sammut’s discussion (July 15) of Tim Soutphommasane’s argument that “equality of opportunity is a myth in…
Brown study
It looks as if Australia is going well in its campaign to win a seat on the United Nations Human…
Consider this…
An American in Paris Donald Trump has withdrawn from the Paris Agreement on climate change. Bravo. The remainder, the 146…
Grace Cossington Smith, The bridge in building 1929
The viewer could treat this exhibition as an exercise in ‘compare and contrast’, or follow my preference and simply enjoy…
Life and death notes
Few sensible people who have ever looked at a map would dispute that we are a bit physically isolated down…
Freeze out the bedwetters
The next federal election is a shoo-in for the Coalition. This statement may appear counter-intuitive, but is nonetheless true. The…
Bending London’s listing rules to win Saudi favour smacks of desperation
Now here’s a tricky question. The world’s largest oil company, potentially worth six times as much as ExxonMobil and ten…
Dear Leavebugs, it’s time to admit your mistake
‘Brexit,’ says my friend David Aaronovitch, ‘is dying.’ We Remainer irreconcilables certainly hope so. But there’s a slim chance the…
My fears about the new ‘extremism commission’
The Egyptian-born Muslim cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi was once invited to speak in this country — and the row which developed…
The Spectator’s notes
We went to the first night of the Proms last week. Thinking it was all over, we left the auditorium…
Bridge
The first week of July is heaven for those of us who don’t normally hear the words ‘bridge’ and ‘holiday’…
New in chess
New in Chess is one of the world’s leading chess magazines. At one time or another, every contemporary champion and…
no. 466
White to play. This position is from Quparadze-Uzunoglu, Cesme 2017. Black is hoping for counterplay on the a1-h8 diagonal but…
Amsterdam Notebook
When my husband and I arrived in our adored Amsterdam on a sun-drenched schoolday afternoon — less than an hour…
Shropshire
I found the land of lost content last week, west of the Clee Hills in the Shropshire Housman wrote about,…
Ivory towers
Great novels rarely make great movies, but for half a century one director has been showing all the others how…
Visual, visceral, confusing
Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk has already been described as ‘a masterpiece’ and ‘a glorious, breathtakingly vivid triumph’, but we need to…
