Life
Aussie life
As I sit in my study at the end of the day listening to the heavy rain and wondering when…
Language
European and Indian languages seem to be related in the very distant past. Linguists are able, for example, to trace…
The Battle for Britain: Michael Heath
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Puzzle no. 721
White to play and mate in two moves. Composed by Carl Schlechter, Allgemeine Sport-Zeitung, 1908. What is White’s first move?…
Italian underworld
Bardo St James’s Restaurant – a name which reads like a map – is a vast new Italian restaurant in…
The big beast from the far north
Don’t bother watching those gazillion-dollar TV prequels to The Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones. Who needs gratuitous…
Royal’s success
The London Mindsports Centre in Hammersmith opened its doors in 2021, after it was converted from a Salvation Army building.…
Well up
‘We got a gusher!’ exclaimed my husband in his idea of the accent of a Texan oil prospector. Normally, I’m…
2574: A Chinese
The unclued Across lights (including a pair) are of a kind and the unclued Down lights can be preceded by…
Solution to 2571: 10”
The TEN unclued lights are Scottish islands – or ‘INCHES’. First prize Mrs F.A. Bull, Canterbury Runners-up Susan Hay, Wolverhampton;…
Do the business
In Competition No. 3267, you were invited to supply a song from the songbook of one of today’s corporate giants.…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. We have been invited to a small but formal dinner in the presence of someone who has been a…
Bridge
Wroclaw, in Poland, played host to the Open World Championships in August this year. The Open Teams, the first event…
Real life
The cyclist was on the wrong side of the road coming towards me head-on. It was a winding country lane…
Wild life
Laikipia Plateau, Kenya Until only a few years ago, the constellations blazed across the sky above the farm at night…
Low life
We were four round the little table in the nunnery kitchen: a 90-year-old German lady and her man; a nun…
High life
Privilege at birth displeases wannabe types, and the subject came up rather a lot last week, especially in the Land…
Cancelled again – the story of my life
I thought one of the benefits of being cancelled – I lost five positions in quick succession at the beginning…
Aussie life
‘I’d rather see a church burn,’ is my usual response to a glass of wine getting knocked over. So if…
Language
The word ‘map’ no longer means just a bit of cartography – it now also means ‘minor attracted person’. In…
High life
None of this would have happened had I accepted my neighbour’s invitation to dine with a Swiss billionaire banker, or…
Real life
A lot has been going wrong lately in the support group I’ve been attending for more than 20 years. I…
Low life
The end that we knew must come eventually, the end we dreaded so much that we could barely think about…
Chicken pie
Laurie Colwin wrote: ‘No one who cooks, cooks alone. Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. The Queen had the knack of making you feel that you were the only person in the room. At…
