Shanghai’s unwitting role as saviour
The legendary ‘Paris of the East’ became the ‘last chance saloon’ for Jews fleeing the Holocaust, many of whom ended up in Australia
Approachable abstraction
Fifteen million pounds and a hefty slice of architectural vision have transformed the Whitworth from a fusty Victorian art temple…
New Neighbour
The trellis between her garden and her new neighbour’s garden is heavy with passion flower, honeysuckle and roses, so that…
The Grand Tour
The Grand Tour usually culminated with Naples, ragamuffin capital of the Italian south, where Vesuvius offered a visual education in…
New Neighbour
The trellis between her garden and her new neighbour’s garden is heavy with passion flower, honeysuckle and roses, so that…
Grand Larsen-y
It is said that more books have been written about chess than about any other game, sport or pastime. I…
No. 388
Black to play. This is from Sursock–Larsen, Siegen 1970. How can Black win material? Answers to me at The Spectator…
Bad sex award
In Competition No. 2924 you were invited to submit a ‘love scene’ from a novel that dampens rather than boosts…
Dear Mary
Q. I work in the London art market. Often, when I run into a fellow dealer and ask how they…
Guinness and oysters — or beef and Haut-Brion — in deepest Ireland
We were talking about the West of Ireland and agreed that there were few greater gastronomic pleasures than a slowly…
A better way
To say that the Paris attacks could have happened in Britain is not enough. Such attacks are being attempted here…
High life
Blind is an indie movie that has an original screenplay by John Buffalo Mailer and is directed by his older…
How the Germans made Glyndebourne
This is hardly the time of year for picnics on the lawn, but I have nevertheless had a week dominated…
How the Germans made Glyndebourne
This is hardly the time of year for picnics on the lawn, but I have nevertheless had a week dominated…
Low life
The car: a ’06 rosso red Seat Ibiza 1.9 TDI Sport, bought three weeks ago from a man who had…
Low life
The car: a ’06 rosso red Seat Ibiza 1.9 TDI Sport, bought three weeks ago from a man who had…
‘Clean eating’ is a great word of the year… for 1906
The word of the year, according to Collins, the dictionary people, is binge-watch. It means to watch DVDs consecutively or,…
Are we looking at the end of liberal democracy?
Listen http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/parisattacksaftermath/media.mp3 As a graduate student in the Harvard Department of Government in the late 1980s, I became slightly jaded…
Are we looking at the end of liberal democracy?
Listen http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/parisattacksaftermath/media.mp3 As a graduate student in the Harvard Department of Government in the late 1980s, I became slightly jaded…
Does HS2 pass the Butterfield test?
Despite my opposition to High Speed 2, I am quite a big fan of HS1, the line which runs from…
The Kenyan night is like a busy shipping lane, but silent
Night falls like a fire curtain at seven and I go to bed not long afterwards, serenaded by bullfrogs after…
Why do we assume our western good life will last for ever?
The slaughter in Paris is a catastrophe for the victims and their families, but the usual hysterical response across the…
