Wild life
The guests at my brother-in-law Rick’s 70th birthday lunch party were distinguished, silver-haired, well heeled. Long before Rick rescued the…
Diary
In such gorgeous weather the best part of Scotland to visit is not (as so many seem to think) the…
Our flying machines
From ‘News of the week’, The Spectator, 2 June 1917: There has been a lull on the Western front. It…
Don’t look for any merit in meritocracy
A few years ago, someone asked me how to fix social care costs for the elderly. One eventual idea of…
May’s mistakes
On the eve of the US presidential election, experts at Princeton university decided that Donald Trump had a 1 per…
Letters
Ignoring the hadith Sir: Douglas Murray and Jenny McCartney (‘The known wolf’ and ‘A war on joy’, 27 May) are…
Jun Chen Grey Red 2017
At the age of 30, Jun Chen arrived in Australia post Tianamen Square. He settled in Brisbane where his first…
The Voice
After a decade of muddle-headed thinking by the so-called Recognition movement, their confusion best summed up by Speccie columnist Gary…
BA’s disaster plan failed as soon as the smoke started coming out of its servers
The science of ‘disaster recovery planning’, together with the related art of ‘crisis PR’, is a core discipline of 21st-century…
Jeremy Corbyn’s one true virtue
Enough of all these vital, apocalyptic, existential elections. They don’t half wear you out. The Scottish referendum was vital and…
Do penises cause climate change? Discuss
‘Why not think about Gender Studies?’ asked an advertorial aimed at prospective students in the newspaper I was reading. Actually,…
Should those poor kids have been there?
My wife will not let our 11-year-old daughter take the dog for a walk around the large field adjoining our…
Bridge
It’s the funniest bridge story I’ve heard in ages. At the recent Lady Milne championship (the women’s Home Internationals), one…
Vote Basman
To the best of my knowledge, Michael Basman is the first officially titled chess master to ever stand in a UK…
No. 459
Black to play. This position is from Mecking-Basman, Hastings 1966. How did Black make the most of his active knights?…
Scarlet women
A Covent Garden barfly was scanning her programme during the first interval: ‘Oh yes, the one about the gynaecologist.’ She…
Woman to woman
Bump to bump they stand: Mary and her cousin Elizabeth, both pregnant, both apple-cheeked and glowing as expectant mothers should…
Dealer’s choice
One evening a few weeks ago I was on my way to the opening of an exhibition at the Venice…
Comic relief
In such times as these, enough to try a man’s soul, a dose of John Finnemore is advisable. His brand…
Heaven knows they’re miserable now
On the face of it, the two new big drama series of the week don’t have a great deal in…
National Army Museum
I used to love the National Army Museum in Royal Hospital Road, Chelsea, which was crammed with the memorabilia of…
Portrait of the week
Home The Conservatives grew restive when polls, for what they were worth, indicated a closing gap between their support and…
The Spectator’s Notes
At Mass on Sunday, we were issued with a letter from the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, entitled ‘The General Election 2017’.…
Pipe down, Hollywood
2012: Famed self-deprecating, ‘red-neck’, Republican comedian Jeff Foxworthy tries to reignite his slowly waning career by posing for a photo-shoot,…
Taking temperatures
It started with a palm to the forehead. Then the glass thermometer, the one in the metal case with the…
