The corporatisation of kindness
In those moments when I most fear that the West is on the skids, I find it helps to make…
Money-saving tips to beat the gloomy GDP figures
We’ll find out shortly whether official statistics agree with economists surveyed by Bloomberg who say UK GDP probably shrank by…
High and dry
Eiffel is a romantic drama purporting to show how a passionate but forbidden love inspired Gustave Eiffel to design and…
Don’t grass
A neighbourly feud is worse than a hosepipe ban
Space oddities
‘These artists are offering other ways of seeing,’ says Ekow Eshun, curator of In the Black Fantastic, and from the…
What a way to go
The greatest pleasure of writing about pop music – even more than the free tickets and records, nice as they…
Porn and pyjamas
It was recently reported that almost 8 per cent of global internet traffic is to pornographic websites. The rise of…
Howard’s way
About ten minutes in to Thirteen Lives, Boy came in and asked me whether it was any good. I said:…
Send off
The joys of editing a newspaper letters page
Sex-change soufflé
One morning in the 20th century, Thérèse wakes up next to her husband and announces that she’s a feminist. Hubby,…
Send in the clowns
Ian McKellen’s Hamlet is the highlight of Edinburgh’s opening week. In this experimental ballet, Sir Ian speaks roughly 5 per…
Water isn’t working
Who’s to blame for the shortages?
Low life
The view from the upstairs window was of other large and secluded houses perched on other still-green Surrey Hills. I…
Letters
The race isn’t run Sir: Bravo Fiona Unwin (‘Rooting for Rishi’, 6 August) for the best piece I have read…
Real life
When my black passport arrived in the post, I decided to take a trip. I’m not a good flier, so…
A price to pay
I was intrigued to learn from Tom Daley – that young man who became famous for jumping off a platform…
2568: Next door have gone
The unclued lights, two of two words, and including four pairs using two of the unclued lights twice, are of…
Solution to 2565: 3 X 2
The unclued lights are words (or one phrase) which contain three pairs (3 x 2, in the title) of double…
Portrait of the week
Home Energy bills will be £4,266 for a typical household by January, according to the consultancy Cornwall Insight, which had…
Another supremo comes in to bat
Well alleluia, English cricket doesn’t seem able to put a foot wrong these days. After hitting three cherries with Rob…
Hosepipe ban
‘Got any ’ose?’ asked my husband, falling into his Two Ronnies ‘Four Candles’ routine, in which he likes to play…
Puzzle no. 715
White to play. Navara – Batsuren, Chennai Olympiad 2022. In this strange position Czech grandmaster David Navara found an elegant…
Diary
We left prepared. Bottles of water, protein snacks, phone chargers, portable Scrabble (even the teenagers can look at the internet…
A personal best
In 2014, Nuno Mendes, a chef from Lisbon by way of Wolfgang Puck’s kitchens and his own Viajante in Bethnal…
Steeple chaser
The high life of a stonemason
