Pacific Paradise Lost
Back in the childhoods of the baby boomers everyone seemed to know that Shakespeare was born in 1564 because there…
Aussie life
As if Hollywood’s elite didn’t have enough to be worried about, the Governor they elected, and whose homelessness laws and…
Language
It is easy to miss the fact that a good deal of slang has a long-forgotten rhyming component (and is…
The child-free influencers waging war on motherhood
At around five weeks into my pregnancy my phone found out about it, and from that point on I was…
Dictator dining
The Savoy Hotel is a theatre playing Mean Girls with a hotel attached to it, so you can expect it…
Which were the most destructive fires in history?
Swing states Where would Canada and Greenland rank if they became US states? – Canada would be, by far, the…
The answers Starmer must give
It will probably only damn me further in the eyes of many, but when I was a government minister I…
What Bridget Phillipson has in common with Plato
One does not like to disagree with one’s editor, but while the image of Rome salting the earth of its…
As good a Dylan biopic as you’ll ever get: A Complete Unknown reviewed
It doesn’t have anything new to say, which is right. If you could figure Dylan out, it would all be…
My guide to liberals
Last Saturday I was making my way across the road from St Pancras to King’s Cross when I noticed a…
Rachel Reeves owes Brompton bikes an apology
I long to write less about Rachel Reeves and more about world-beating British businesses – such as Brompton, the folding…
A new solo album by a former Beatle that – astonishingly – demands repeated plays
For artists lacking any obvious feel for the style, ‘going country’, similar to mainstream white artists dabbling in reggae in…
2686: Poem VIII
Clockwise round the grid from 1 run the final words (3,6,4,3,6,3,8,4,3,4,2,6) of a poem. Two unclued lights (one of two…
The highs and lows of Dry January
The first week of Dry January was relatively easy. Not falling asleep in front of the television was a pleasant…
Dear Mary: How do I ensure that splitting the bill is fair?
Q. A Belgian couple (a baron and baroness, no less) are regular visitors to the Highlands and I have come…
The unnecessary complexity of the World Test Championship
Have you booked your tickets for the World Test Championship yet? Did you even know it’s on? What seemed like…
Does Keir Starmer know what a ‘drag anchor’ does?
The language of sailing ships is as treacherous as a lee shore. Words seldom mean what they suggest or are…
How I fell foul of YouTube’s fact-checkers
The day after Mark Zuckerberg said fact-checkers ‘have destroyed more trust than they have created’ I experienced why he has…
How to serve smelt
Donald Trump has form with the smelt. In his 2016 presidential run, he complained that California’s authorities were prioritising the…
