Life
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…
The turf
It takes a little bit of magic to train any racehorse. It takes plenty of magic to keep a 13-year-old…
Time to think about holidays
Having returned from a fortnight’s break, I wonder if we get holidays all wrong. In northern Europe, the custom is…
Dire
‘Dire?’ said my husband. ‘It’s something chronic.’ He was putting on his idea of an Estuary accent, in a manner…
Solution to 2570: Short story
Arthur C. Clarke (31/45) said that Ernest Hemingway (35/12) won a bet from fellow writers for the shortest story: FOR…
2573
22 5 42 14 25 31: 29-40, 10-26. Across 1 Hidden by grass, squad joined after separation (8) 9…
Days of passing
There have been few more momentous weeks in British history, or indeed in world history. This commentator must plead guilty.…
Larkin about
In Competition No. 3266, you were invited to reimagine one of Philip Larkin’s poems in the style of a poet…
Puzzle no. 720
White to play and mate in two moves. Composed by Edith Baird, for The Chess Amateur, 1923. Answers should be…
Bridge
It’s tough trying to recall every card that the opponents have played when you’re in the middle of a tricky…
Pique or cheat?
In the third round of the Sinquefield Cup in St Louis, Magnus Carlsen was beaten by 19-year old Hans Niemann,…
The Battle for Britain: Michael Heath
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What Charles shouldn’t do
One of the most regrettable trends of the past few decades is the creep of politics into every aspect of…
Aussie life
What is it about Daniel Andrews, quasi-dictator of Victoria? He runs what Tony Abbott last week called ‘the worst government…
Language
The word ‘sovereignty’ is recorded as part of the English language since at least 1340 – a very old word…
All the world’s a cricket pitch
So farewell to cricket’s The Hundred tournament, or what seemed by the end to be beefy South Africans in ‘Butterkist’…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. We have made available our mews cottage – 30 yards from our main house – to a woman with…
