Australian letters
Cartoon charms Sir: Politics can grow stale and reviews be a matter of taste, but Spectator cartoons are a continual…
Shorten Barracuda
Australia’s newly commissioned Shortfin Barracuda submarines may as well be referred to as the Shorten Barracudas, because it is largely…
Brown study
I suppose I must be the only person in Australia who has read, re-read and underlined Niki Savva’s The Road…
G-G notes
Maybe it’s the sleeping monarchist in me – my Irish Catholic granny would be so ashamed – but wasn’t it…
Consider this…
Breivik: murderous fascist having a lend If a measure of civilisation is the absence of violence (see Steven Pinker’s The…
Australian notes
Irony of ironies: Abbott to save Turnbull? Putting Malcolm Turnbull in the Lodge has not worked out as the conspirators…
Artist’s impression of proposed new museum at Parramatta
There is an interesting article in the latest issue of Apollo, the international art magazine, a stablemate of The Spectator…
Sex offender
I saw Prince play once. I was bored rigid but couldn’t mention this to the girls I’d gone with: as…
Indoor gardening
A year or so ago, I inherited a cardboard box filled with plants. It was an offshoot from an enormous…
Evolution
World champion Magnus Carlsen takes much inspiration from the games of the former champion Emanuel Lasker. Lasker and Carlsen share…
No. 406
White to play. This is a position from Bjornsson-Sigurdsson, Iceland Team Championship 2016. How did White make the most of…
Exit strategy
In Competition No. 2945 you were invited to suggest remarks guaranteed to get rid of a guest who is outstaying…
Your problems solved
Q. How does one go about getting invited to a wedding? Two friends of mine from university, who I have…
Lost in Piccadilly
Batman owned the Criterion in The Dark Knight, but could he do anything about British Telecom? Savini at Criterion, an…
Fear and loathing
Strange as it may seem, there are still people around David Cameron who regard the Scottish referendum campaign as a…
High life
I read this in an American newspaper (it was written by a woman who used to edit my copy for…
Low life
I drank Bombay gin and Fever-Tree tonic on the half-empty easyJet flight to Gatwick. I was even offered ice cubes.…
Low life
I drank Bombay gin and Fever-Tree tonic on the half-empty easyJet flight to Gatwick. I was even offered ice cubes.…
Queue
The language that President Barack Obama used was evidence of skulduggery, Nigel Farage declared. ‘The UK is gonna be in…
Real life
The gloves are off in my battle with the two brothers who live in the flat upstairs. They have just…
