Life
High life
The only good news, after the massacres in Ukraine, is that so many ugly behemoth super-yachts have been seized and…
The Battle for Britain
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The turf
How wonderful after three years to have the crowds back to enjoy the glorious concoction of skill, bravery, razzmatazz and…
Heart’s content
According to Pliny the Elder, Scipio Aemilianus was the first man to shave daily. The origin of the name Boeing…
Nakamura’s place
Wesley So won the final Fide Grand Prix, which was held in Berlin earlier this month. But it was Hikaru…
Aesopian
To evade algorithms that hunt down forbidden words, users of platforms like TikTok employ cryptic synonyms. So deadbecomes unalive, and…
Bridge
I went cycling in the Pyrenees with my teenagers last week. Every time we stopped for a break, out came…
Wild Geese of wine
The Irish rarely understate their achievements. Yet there is one exception. Over the centuries, the links between Catholic Ireland and…
Aussie life
April is the cruellest month for anybody who despairs at the state of contemporary humour. Where are the Ealing comedies…
Language
The expression ‘to walk back’ has exploded over the news recently. We have been told by the news media that…
The truly disadvantaged group in Britain
I’m not sure what to think about the BBC’s announcement that it wants a quarter of its staff to be…
The Battle for Britain
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Pep and Klopp, kings of England
It’s a game for the ages all right, City againstLiverpool on Sunday as the Premier League moves to its most…
Puzzle no. 697
White to play. Duda-Anton Guijarro, Charity Cup, March 2022. Black’s last move, 21…Qe7-b4 was an unforced error. Which move did…
2550: Shorties
The unclued lights and eight clued without thematic definition are of a kind, expressly confirmed in a section of Chambers.…
Lost and found
In Competition No. 3243, you were invited to submit a poem about the recent discovery of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance.…
Low life
A light was on in the caravan site office so I went over to try and buy a gas canister.…
Career moves
Sergey Karjakin won’t be playing much chess for a while. Last month, the Russian grandmaster’s Twittering jingoism in support of…
Maine offender
Last week Chris Corbin and Jeremy King lost controlof the restaurant group they founded: Corbin & King, which made theWolseley,…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. My brother’s social life has dried up since his divorce (which coincided with the pandemic). So when he received…
Real life
My friend Emily, who once got an owl stuck to her hand, was bringing her son for a day with…
Gif
The man who invented gifs, Stephen Wilhite, has died, aged 74. Controversy survives him – over how to pronounce the…
High life
One hundred or so years ago, a down-in-the-dumps Joseph Roth wrote to Stefan Zweig: ‘The barbarians have taken over.’ Later…
Solution to 2547: Ascending order
The unclued lights are phrases which include the numbers from 1 to 7, with 1 featured twice. First prize John…
Wild life
Delayed, on Southern Rail Home From the Hill is a 1987 documentary by Molly Dineen about Hilary Hook, an elderly…
