Varsity match
On Saturday 5 March the 134th Varsity Match between the teams from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge takes place…
No. 398
Black to play. This position is from Scibior-Chiu, Varsity Match 2013. Black now powered through into the white position. What…
For their eyes only
In Competition No. 2937 you were invited to submit extracts from the diaries of the famous that their writers did…
Your problems solved
Q. Re. your letter from F.C. about the boyfriend leaving lids off (20 February), I have a similar problem. My husband…
Easy to swallow
Pharmacy 2 is the reanimated child of Damien Hirst; it lives inside the Newport Street Gallery in a forsaken patch of…
The prying game
One of the marks of a good Home Secretary is a healthy wariness of those in authority who come begging…
High life
The rich are under attack nowadays, never more so than in America, where The Donald continues to trump his critics,…
Long life
On Monday I went to the newsagent to buy the newspapers and picked up the first issue of a new…
Long life
On Monday I went to the newsagent to buy the newspapers and picked up the first issue of a new…
Low life
Before we left for Sunday lunch at the Les Deux Garçons restaurant, Aix-en-Provence, I checked the reviews on Tripadvisor. I’m…
Low life
Before we left for Sunday lunch at the Les Deux Garçons restaurant, Aix-en-Provence, I checked the reviews on Tripadvisor. I’m…
Leap in the dark
‘They all laughed at Christopher Columbus,’ sang my husband flatly, ‘when he said the world was round.’ I wasn’t going…
Real life
Darcy trod on a screw. Five little words which, if Darcy was anything other than a thoroughbred horse, might signify…
Two big hitters leave the crease
Two great men have just bowed out from their chosen trades and it is bloody sad. The New Zealand cricket…
What would my socialist dad think of me now?
On Tuesday night I went to a birthday party for my father at the House of Commons. Hosted by the…
What would my socialist dad think of me now?
On Tuesday night I went to a birthday party for my father at the House of Commons. Hosted by the…
Nice guys do finish first
Richard Johnson, possibly the nicest man to occupy a saddle and certainly the most modest, once said of his Irish…
Nice guys do finish first
Richard Johnson, possibly the nicest man to occupy a saddle and certainly the most modest, once said of his Irish…
People power then and now
It does seem extraordinary that the increasingly puce-faced Mr Cameron offered us an ‘in-out’ referendum and is now telling us…
Barometer
You can’t do that there ’ere Some of the things which have been banned under Public Spaces Protection Orders, according to…
Diary
Just as the presidential race in America started to get really crazy, I left for India. On the morning of…
The last of Henry James
From ‘Henry James’, The Spectator, 4 March 1916: Englishmen are not likely ever to forget the generous thought which inspired…
Letters
What might have been Sir: Harry Mount points out that Boris Johnson is two years older than David Cameron (Diary,…
Portrait of the week
Home An official analysis by the Cabinet Office said that if Britain left the EU it would lead to a…
Ticket to ride
The latest film from the Coen brothers is a comedy set during the ‘golden age’ of Hollywood and in some…
