The Spectator

Thursday

Wednesday

Monday

Sunday

Craig Raine

Thread

The rustle of coarse, carded yarn, through fine taut cotton, pulled to a point: tense, hoarse, a wordless whisper, saying something sexual.

Friday

Jacqueline King

Filthie Olde Seth

Seth, Seth, the servile serf Earned his cruste by plowing earthe.  Thick filthe lay on his every limbe. The stynke of Seth was foule and grimme. When summer came with azure skye And barleycorne was ripe and drye, Seth leapt at dawne, uncleane from bedde, To shake the dandruffe from his hedde. He scythed ’til

Wednesday

The Spectator

2631: Nine capitalists - solution

The unclued lights are the surnames of the nine LONDON WORTHIES, verifiable in Brewer. First prize Andy Gemmill, Lenzie, Glasgow Runners-up Alasdair MacKenzie, Hambledon, Hants; Emma Corke, Abinger Hammer, Surrey

The Spectator

Letters: why not let readers buy The Spectator?

Power to the readers Sir: I would suggest that even if the government of the UAE gives a ‘cast-iron’ guarantee not to interfere with The Spectator’s editorial line, this should be taken with a very large pinch of salt (‘The real deal’, 2 December). Why don’t you ask your subscribers to buy the magazine? With nearly 140,000

The Spectator

Where does ‘panda diplomacy’ come from? 

Black and white politics Two pandas, Yang Guang and Tian Tian, left Edinburgh Zoo for China after their 12-year loan to Britain ended. But contrary to popular belief, ‘panda diplomacy’ didn’t begin in 1972 when Chairman Mao gave two to the visiting Richard Nixon – and received two musk oxen in return. (In 1974, Mao

Boris Dralyuk

Broken clock

Past time, maintains the broken clock. It isn’t off, not by a minute. Without a tick, without a tock, Past time, maintains the broken clock. Twice every day, those still hands mock the present, but they’re never in it. Past time, maintains the broken clock, It isn’t off, not by a minute.

Monday

Friday

Wednesday

The Spectator

2630: Souvenir - solution

The puzzle appeared on 11 November 2023. The unclued lights reveal ‘The CENOTAPH and POPPY evoke REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY, once ARMISTICE DAY, the ARMISTICE being SIGNED at the ELEVENTH HOUR, ELEVENTH DAY and ELEVENTH MONTH’. First prize Victoria Estcourt, Tisbury, Wilts Runners-up John Harley, Norton, Stockton on Tees; M.D. Conway, Grimsby

The Spectator

Press freedom isn’t ‘sentimental’ – it’s vital

‘We can be quite sentimental about some of our so-called treasured assets,’ said Lord Johnson, one of Kemi Badenoch’s business ministers, earlier this week. ‘The reality is that media and information has moved on. Clearly, most of us today don’t buy a physical newspaper or necessarily go to a traditional news source.’ His implication was

Fred Johnston

The Old Campaign

‘Love and war are the same thing…’             —          Miguel de Cervantes Somewhere over the tiled foothills of our council estate A man and a woman are arguing. The focus of the argument is something brutally trivial A TV programme choice, that sort of thing, Yet the air is a hot Isandlewana of big