Abide with Me
Was our first date really a boxer’s funeral? You in pitch, me in black—all in all a noirish affair, how…
Winter’s tail
The London Classic, the end of the million-dollar Grand Tour, was something of a damp squib. A surfeit of draws…
Puzzle no. 390
Black to play. This is a variation from Carlsen-Grischuk, London Classic 2015. Carlsen won but this week’s puzzle shows how…
Nostradamus
In Competition No. 2929 you were invited to submit an acrostic poem containing some predictions for the next decade, in…
Your problems solved
Q. Although I have met most of the fellow occupants of my building at residents’ meetings, we don’t socialise. However…
That sinking feeling
The Feng Shang Princess is a floating Chinese restaurant on the Regent’s Canal in north London, which flows from Little…
Through the roof
When David Cameron said this week that he is worried his children would not be able to afford to buy…
High life
OK sports fans, what do Dame Vivien Duffield and Evelyn Waugh have in common? The answer is absolutely nothing, so…
Long life
This is an uplifting story of survival with which to usher in the New Year. At Stoke Park, my home…
Long life
This is an uplifting story of survival with which to usher in the New Year. At Stoke Park, my home…
Chattering classes
When the much missed Frank Johnson (1943–2006), once editor of The Spectator, wrote in 1980 that ‘the peculiar need for…
Real life
‘Start at the back and try to pass as many horses as you can,’ said the trainer, as we stepped…
Add Ben Stokes to the world’s greatest batsmen
On Sunday morning a friend texted: ‘You watching the big bash, or the domestic stuff down in Australia?’ On one…
The left’s war on science
How much longer can the liberal left survive in the face of growing scientific evidence that many of its core…
The left’s war on science
How much longer can the liberal left survive in the face of growing scientific evidence that many of its core…
North-south divide
The well-bred Sea Pigeon, who had finished seventh in the Derby when trained at Beckhampton by Jeremy Tree, was later…
North-south divide
The well-bred Sea Pigeon, who had finished seventh in the Derby when trained at Beckhampton by Jeremy Tree, was later…
Drinking at school with Plato
Rugby and Ampleforth schools have decided to give their charges experience of sensible drinking by introducing a little alcohol, under…
Barometer
The outsiders Did the seven members of Harold Wilson’s cabinet who campaigned to leave the Common Market in the 1975…
Diary
So far my responsibilities as the 2016 chair of the Man Booker prize have been rather light. We’ve had our…
Church service
From ‘A Mobilisation of the Church’, The Spectator, 8 January 1916: Suppose the Church were mobilised so that the majority of…
Portrait of the week
Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, decided to allow ministers to campaign for either side in the referendum on membership…
