Coincidence
My grandmaster colleague James Plaskett has two passions, the pursuit of the mythical giant octopus (ongoing) and a fascination with…
No. 380
Black to play. This position is from Abramciuc–Nevednichy, Chisinau 2014. How can Black simplify down to a winning endgame? Answers…
Rebranded classics
In Competition No. 2916 you were invited to recast a well-known scene from literature to reflect the fact that its…
Dear Mary
Q. I am an impoverished artist living in a famously cheap European city, largely for reasons of economy. I love…
Club mischief
When it comes to nightclubs, many have written, but none has surpassed the Perroquet in Debra Dowa. Le tout Debra…
The Pope’s moment
On Tuesday, Pope Francis set foot in the United States for the first time in his life. His plane touched…
High life
Gstaad Jeremy Clarke has wiped me out again, for a change. His accounts of the high jinks on board the…
Long life
It’s hard to turn on the television nowadays without being shown a robot. It might be looking like a grasshopper…
Long life
It’s hard to turn on the television nowadays without being shown a robot. It might be looking like a grasshopper…
Low life
I was looking after Oscar, my five-and-a-half-year-old grandson, for the day. We’d played football in the garden, then we’d come…
Low life
I was looking after Oscar, my five-and-a-half-year-old grandson, for the day. We’d played football in the garden, then we’d come…
Fuckebythenavele
A great discovery has been made by Dr Paul Booth, a fellow of Keele University. It is a 14th-century example…
Real life
After pulling out of my flat sale and U-turning on the idea of moving to the Cotswolds, it took me…
Corbyn sets off on the wrong track
Amid all the excitement about David Cameron this week, I fear that Jeremy Corbyn’s first major policy announcement may have…
Corbyn sets off on the wrong track
Amid all the excitement about David Cameron this week, I fear that Jeremy Corbyn’s first major policy announcement may have…
From A to B, differently
Afamily member is thinking of moving and asked for commuting advice. Well, first add 25 per cent to any journey…
Wild life
Laikipia A lion has just mauled and partially eaten a warrior who tried to throw a spear in my…
Corbyn’s democracy
The virtuous Mr Corbyn is insisting that New Old Labour should return to its traditional republican ways and take decisions…
Barometer
Available for parties Labour deputy leader Tom Watson said that leaving his party to join the Liberal Democrats would be…
Diary
Jeremy Corbyn has been compared to plenty of people over the past few months — a geography teacher, Michael Foot,…
Conscription and democracy
From ‘The will of the majority’, The Spectator, 18 September 1915: The minority may declare, as have some of the trade…
Portrait of the week
Home In a speech at the Shanghai stock exchange, George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced a feasibility study…
Home is where the heart is
99 Homes is an American drama about house repossession. Bummer, you might think, but here is what you don’t yet…
Indiscreet astronaut
Among my more bohemian friends in 1980s London, Brion Gysin was a name spoken with a certain awe. He was…
