Adventures on the isle that seduced Odysseus
Gozo — Malta’s tiny island neighbour — was once rather a crucial spot in the Mediterranean. The Knights of Malta…
Dementia Love
You lie so quiet on your bed, You hear the sound and turn your head. I wait and hope, perhaps…
Thud and blunder
The Fidé World Cup, which finished last week in Baku, boasted over $1 million in overall prize money, with $100,000…
Puzzle no. 383
Black to play. This is from Karjakin-Svidler, Fidé World Cup, Baku 2015. The position occurred earlier in the third game…
Change of direction
In Competition No. 2919 you were invited to write a poem that begins with the first line or two lines…
Dear Mary: Another way to deal with a maddening blackhead
Q. Might I suggest an alternative solution to E.B. of London’s problem (3 October) about the person sporting a ‘maddening’…
I went to Pedro’s Tex Mex Cantina to claim my racist sombrero
Pedro’s Tex-Mex Cantina is a fantastical shack near a ring road in Norwich. It was recently asked to stop handing…
Britain should not mistake its allies for friends
It would be hard to dream up a more absurd piece of political satire than an agency of the British…
I offered Zac Goldsmith £50 to stay 20 feet away from me
I once tried to bribe Zac Goldsmith with a £50 note, but he didn’t bite even back then. He was…
My home Stoke Park has become a hotbed of sex and violence
When I’m not busy editing the Oldie magazine, I live near Towcester in south Northamptonshire where things are pretty unexciting.…
My home Stoke Park has become a hotbed of sex and violence
When I’m not busy editing the Oldie magazine, I live near Towcester in south Northamptonshire where things are pretty unexciting.…
Why Jesus sometimes plays a very long game
We closed the last page of a gruesome, thrilling picture book called The Day Louis Got Eaten and said our…
Why Jesus sometimes plays a very long game
We closed the last page of a gruesome, thrilling picture book called The Day Louis Got Eaten and said our…
Can politicians say ‘crusade’ again? David Cameron thinks so
One thing grabbed my attention from David Cameron’s speech, long ago in the middle of last week. ‘We need a…
Whoosh! I was addicted from the first gallop to the heavenly, godlike, immortal speed
The young lad behind the counter of the betting shop looked at me askance. ‘This horse is 200–1.’ ‘Yes. I…
I know who’s going to win the Rugby World Cup. I think
England did have some clear winners in their otherwise beached Rugby World Cup campaign in the unlikely form of Lawrence…
How I’d make a success of a nude-free Playboy
I can’t say that I’m surprised Playboy has decided to stop publishing pictures of naked women. On the contrary, I…
How I’d make a success of a nude-free Playboy
I can’t say that I’m surprised Playboy has decided to stop publishing pictures of naked women. On the contrary, I…
Be warned: the mighty Air Force Blue blows away all before him
I was both delighted and unsurprised that Denis Healey made it to 98. One day in the 1970s I took…
Be warned: the mighty Air Force Blue blows away all before him
I was both delighted and unsurprised that Denis Healey made it to 98. One day in the 1970s I took…
Socrates and Galen on the Great British Bake Off
As the national girth expands by the second, Auntie, never backward about lecturing us on the topic, continues to glory…
Four great demolition disasters
Bang goes the plan The demolition of six tower blocks in Glasgow failed when the top half of two of…
N.M. Gwynne’s diary: Old names worth dropping
As I get older (and my 74th birthday is now close), I get deeper and deeper into nostalgia. I do…
Our debt to Serbia
From ‘Boldness, Boldness and Again Boldness’, The Spectator, 16 October 1915: There are considerations of faith and honour which must in any…
