Christmas
The joy of a cancelled Christmas
Among the greatest bores right now are those friends who insist on telling you, usually as if it’s some kind…
Joan Collins: The politics of Christmas trees
To say that the past nine months have been tough is like saying a hurricane felt like a spring shower.…
Mick Fleetwood: Why Peter Green was the greatest guitarist
In a normal week, I would jam with local musicians, but that stopped in March and we musicians miss the…
Deserves to be a permanent winter fixture: Potted Panto at the Garrick reviewed
Potted Panto is a 70-minute parody presented by two burlesque comedians. Jeff is a tall, playful bungler and his colleague,…
Every page of this astonishingly beautiful ode to the citrus is a treat
Laura Freeman is transported by J.C. Volkamer’s astonishingly beautiful ode to the citrus
The magic of Anthony Powell
Every few years I’ve picked up one or other of Anthony Powell’s A Dance to the Music of Time series…
My fateful appearance at the Bank of England’s Christmas drinks
Tidings of comfort as the vaccination programme advances, but shortage of joy. That’s my summary of a season in which…
Boris Johnson’s Christmas Covid gamble
Boris Johnson is taking a gamble with his decision to stick with the easing of Covid restrictions for Christmas. The…
Four-nations Christmas Covid truce hangs in balance
It’s become a regular refrain to hear that Brexit talks have been extended. Now the same applies to negotiations over…
Was endorsing Boris one of my worst misjudgments ever?
Now that our social lives are a Venn diagram that only mathematicians can understand I am officially becoming a recluse.…
Melania’s au revoir to Christmas
Washington DC It’s still dark outside and dumping rain as the media waits for the annual White House Holiday Decor…
Which countries are most sceptical about vaccines?
Gloss over Should we be worried that the head of research into respiratory drugs at AstraZeneca is called Dr Pangalos,…
Dear Mary: How can I stop my boss giving me a Christmas hamper?
Q. For many years my boss gave each member of his small team a very generous Christmas gift voucher from…
Portrait of the week: Christmas is on, Trump is off and Piglet stars on a 50p piece
Home The AstraZeneca vaccine developed by the University of Oxford was found to be 70 per cent effective — 90…
The infantilism of Advent calendars for grown-ups
Anything goes with Advent calendars
I was dreaming of a cancelled Christmas
I was dreaming of a cancelled Christmas
You can’t cancel Christmas, stupid
You may have seen this interesting exchange on CNN between ‘America’s top infectious diseases expert’ Dr Anthony Fauci and CNN…
Backsliding on a lockdown end-date has begun already
Will England’s lockdown end on 2 December? Even before this morning’s media round there was good reason to suspect it…
‘The Melania Tapes’ reveal she’s even cooler than we thought
Just a couple of hours before President Trump announced that he and his wife, first lady Melania, had tested positive…
I spent Christmas Day helping the homeless – and I was bored out of my mind
When I told friends that I would be spending Christmas Day helping the homeless at a Crisis at Christmas centre…
My recipe to cure a hangover
Journalists exaggerate, often reaching for superlatives to chronicle mildly interesting events. Even so, there are times when it is necessary…
What did psychics predict was going to happen in 2019?
Bah humbug Some of the things reported to have been banned this Christmas: — Mulled wine banned from being sold…
Letters: Should conservatives be worried that high-spending Boris has a majority?
My father’s imprisonment Sir: Harald Maass’s piece on the plight of Uyghurs in China (‘A cultural genocide’, December 14) captures…
Neil Woodford could do the washing-up at my fantasy Christmas lunch
It’s the season for kindness and conviviality. In that spirit — and recognising that business, like personal life, rarely follows…
The best Christmas gift you can give yourself is to learn some poetry by heart
Every Christmas I find I am living in the past. I blame my father. He was born in 1910 —…
