Going for a song
Marcus Berkmann never realised that he wanted the kind of new old music that these bargain collections offer. Now he can’t live without them
Lines of beauty
A new British Museum exhibition, Drawing in Silver and Gold, shows how the flowering of visual naturalism in the 15th century owed its development to this magical medium
Get me to an opera house
Plus: a claustrophobic double bill at the Arcola Theatre courtesy of the Grimeborn opera festival
Dual control
The tone is all over the place, the violence repetitive, and you’ll laugh when you’re not supposed to
Nice work
Plus: a play at the Dorfman that is hooked on an addictive illusion but still packs a five-star punch
Cock and bull
If this Sunday drama sometimes felt less like an adaption of the novel than a 21st-century meditation on it, the result was by no means a disaster
High life
Once upon a time sport was not political. Nowadays expressing anything that can be construed as orthodoxy is hate speech
Long life
Hillary Clinton shouldn’t listen to him — his assessments of Cameron and Clegg were way off
Bridge
The bridge world continues to be electrified by the scandal that Janet wrote about last week. Lotan Fisher and Ron…
Checkmate me in St Louis
The Sinquefield Cup in St Louis, one of the strongest tournaments of all time, has been convincingly won by the…
Puzzle no. 378
Black to play. This position is a variation from So-Aronian, St Louis 2015. How can Black conclude the attack? Answers…
Bennboozled
In Competition No. 2914 — which was inspired by a speech given by the late Sir Keith Joseph in which…
2228: Unfair
One unclued light (ignore its umlaut) is the home of a team known by a name which is another unclued…
To 2225: Category
1D, 3, 15D and 40 are fictional TIGERS (30) created by 20, 35, 4A and 12. Extra letters in clues…
My own modest proposal: designer babies for the poor
It will reverse the rise of the cognitive elite
Eugenics for your email
Francis Galton was wrong about how people breed – but right, I suspect, about information
Credible
The favourite compliment of Labour leadership candidates is a grudging sort of praise at best
Australian letters
Mistaken identity Sir: Taki is mistaken in his column of 29 August 2015. Louis XVIII was not a ‘fat Napoleonic…
Photo opportunity
Former Speccie columnist and would-be federal Treasurer Chris Bowen clearly is in need of a decent sub-editor to help him…
