Animal crackers
The other evening I was driving back in heavy rain from my pilates class when I noticed something rather upsetting…
Twists, turns and good red herrings
Jessie Burton’s first novel, The Miniaturist, set in 17th-century Amsterdam, read like a lantern-slide show. Her churches were by Pieter…
Paella
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Low life
Before dashing out of the door and driving to Nice airport, I gave my eyebrows a quick trim with the…
Long life
One of my first outings while recovering from a little stroke has been to the New London Theatre in Drury…
Bridge
The 53rd European Teams Championship started last week in Budapest, 37 countries competing in an 11-day complete round robin. The…
Jumbled up
‘In the end, nothing goes with anything,’ Lucian Freud remarked one afternoon years ago. ‘It’s your taste that puts things…
No. 214
Black to play. This is from Caruana-Mamedyarov, Gashimov Memorial Play-off 2016. Black played 1 … Kg8 here, missing a clever…
Goths
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Wedding
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The Battle for Britain
The post The Battle for Britain appeared first on The Spectator. Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment…
West End churls
Cafe Monico, as if named by an illiterate playboy, is on Shaftesbury Avenue between The Curious Incident of the Dog…
Tate
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Speak up
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Show business
Sport has never held much appeal for me, so I rarely venture into stadiums. But I do appreciate their peculiar…
Nursery
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Face value
When Richard III’s bones were unearthed in a Leicester car park, Frankie Boyle suggested the headline ‘Bent royal found at…
Portrait of the week
Home One week before the United Kingdom voted in a referendum on membership of the European Union, Jo Cox, a…
The eyes have it
Tchaikovsky knew what he thought of the title character of his Eugene Onegin. ‘I loved Tatyana, and was furiously indignant…
Diary
It was a nice touch that MPs sat in each other’s seats in the Commons during the tributes to Jo…
Absolutely Fabulous
Absolutely Fabulous, which is about to make its cinema debut, is a comedy about women being useless. I watched it…
Barometer
Big game hunt Wales beat Russia 3–0 to finish above England in their group at the European Football Championships. Which…
High life
I always thought the Freuds a pretty sordid bunch, and after the latest revelations it seems I wasn’t far off.…
Cicero’s Brexit moment
If Remain has won, for all the political and financial flurries, it will be business as usual for us plebs.…
Real life
The cottage in Surrey has fallen through, for the time being at least. Maybe I am going to be a…
