Life
High life
Harvard man Russell Seitz has sent me an extraordinary present as an object lesson in ‘what a magazine should be…
Budget
The Budget (which the revolutionary fiscal act last week was technically not) is directly connected with bilge and with one…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. I shall be spending more time in the company of newer acquaintances in the West Country and would appreciate…
A call to arms
I’ve agreed to interview the author and journalist Andrew Doyle about his new book at the Conservative party conference –…
Solution to 2572: Blown up
As suggested by the quotation by John Donne around the perimeter, the other unclued lights were all kinds of trumpets.…
Burnt Cambridge cream
If a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, then a Trinity or Cambridge burnt cream must taste…
The Generation game
The latest flashpoint in the Carlsen-Niemann saga took place in the sixth round of the preliminaries at the Julius Baer…
The Battle for Britain: Michael Heath
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The art of the cocktail
We were discussing bourbon and whether American whiskey could ever rival Scotch. I recalled the first time I ever tried…
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…
