Table Talk

Anoraks at half-mast

Tom Chesshyre on the death of a train-spotters’ paradise

On nodding terms

Thomas Woodham-Smith says the most vocal customers rarely buy

Cape crusader

Hannah Betts loves the theatrical flourish of a cloak

Trunk routes

Take your time, but do plant a tree, says Hephzibah Anderson

Into the festive spirit

Christopher Pincher enjoys a 2009 Margaux in a dining room steeped in historical scandal

How to beat the killjoys

A pared-back Christmas means we can at last bin the big bird, says Felipe Fernández-Armesto

Pleasures of the plague year

Lisa Hilton welcomes the locals back to Venice and enjoys a spicy nod to the city’s vibrant past

The pardoner’s tale

Christopher North on a sentimental fad that risks cheapening the ritual of the bullring

It takes all sorts

Patrick Galbraith on rural racism and the fear of outsiders

Glorious mud

Nick Cohen is badly bitten by the cross-country bug