Life
Speaker’s corner
In Competition No. 3292, you were invited to provide a poem to mark the death of Betty Boothroyd. The formidable…
Sharron Davies’s great victory
It’s been quite a while since we celebrated any of Sharron Davies’s considerable achievements in the pool – well, a…
There’s no bargaining with my wife
For me, one of the joys of going abroad is bargaining with the local sellers. They name an extortionate price;…
Bring back the savoury!
For a while now, we’ve been living through a renaissance of classical British cooking: a whole host of restaurants have…
Real life
The pony grabbed the bag of carrots and ran across the field with it in her mouth, tail in the…
Low life
The morning after we were wedded, I went to hospital in Marseille. The oncologist wanted to assess the pain level…
Language
The charity Oxfam has come under fire for issuing a bizarre ‘inclusive’ language guide to staff. The 92-page report warns…
Aussie life
Two weeks after our Prime Minister told us he will be attending the coronation of Charles III we still don’t…
A nose of wet chihuahua
Some decades ago, there was a Tory MP called John Stokes: eventually, and deservedly, Sir John. He had no interest…
2597: A couple
Five unclued lights are connected with one partner, four with the other. Another links both. Across 1 Nervous about yarn…
The case for slow change
Some excellent thinking this month from the Italian complexity theorist Luca Dellanna: Two days ago, the EU parliament approved a…
Whose image is it anyway?
On Monday, a bill was passed by the National Assembly in France that will give courts the power to prevent…
