Life
Low life
I’m house-sitting for the foreign correspondent while he attends the funeral of his beloved father-in-law Toto, the last of the…
Who knew Test cricket could be like this?
Test cricket, bloody hell! For years, it’s been getting the last rites – now it’s the most exciting way anyone…
Child’s play
Ave Mario looks like Clown Town, a soft-play centre in Finchley with a ball pit so large you could drown…
The Battle for Britain: Michael Heath
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Rehash
My husband put one foot forward atan angle to the other and grasped his left hand with his right. ‘Occiditmiseros…
Aussie life
I have a confession to make. Despite voting for an Australian Republic in 1999, and despite making an ad arguing…
Scotch eggs
One of the perils of being a recipe writer is that people regularly ask me why I bother making things…
Solution to 2556: Recent origins
The unclued entries give the origins of elements 110-118 now named Darmstadtium, Roentgenium, Copernicium, Nihonium, Flerovium, Moscovium, Livermorium, Tennessine and…
(no title)
Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, ‘El Ajedrecista’, died in prison in the United States on 31 May. The Colombian drug lord, a…
Puzzle No. 706
White to play and mate in 3. Composed by Sigmund Franz Josef Lehner, 1864. There are several ways to give…
Turkey
Turkey has told the UN it wants tobe called Türkiye. Even when it is written in capitals, it would still…
2559: Platinum upgrade
Reading clockwise around the perimeter are six theme words, in random order, one of which starts in square 38. The…
Not everything has to be a trade-off
‘It is vital that we see a return to face-to-face meetings to foster the dynamic collaboration that creates breakthrough ideas.’…
Battle for Britain
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Toasting the Queen
It was an extraordinary weekend. The various spectacles had something for all tastes: pageantry on Horse Guards; solemnity in St…
Real life
If I could ban one question ever being asked of me again it would be: ‘Are you on WhatsApp?’ I…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. As a mildly famous professional cook, I agreed to judge a children’s cake-baking competition at the summer fête of…
Bridge
I recently spent a long weekend in Lillehammer in Norway. Apparently it’s very charming, but frankly I have no idea:…
Low life
‘But you look so well!’ How many times have I heard that lately. Kindly meant by most, but for a…
The turf
In the absence on her Platinum Jubilee of Her Majesty, such an avid Derby attender in the past, and following…
Vita and vino
For Christmas Caroline bought me a ‘Deluxe GiftExperience’ at Chapel Down, the UK’s leading winery. I say ‘me’, but it…
High life
Southampton, Long Island These are peripatetic times for the poor little Greek boy, up to the Hamptons for some sun-seeking…
Sorry effort
In Competition No. 3252, you were invited to write a letter of condolence on the mis-fortune of an acquaintance which,…
Aussie life
In last Saturday’s Weekend Australian, Professor Peter Sutton, an internationally recognised anthropologist and linguist, wrote ‘Indigenous identity has become such…
Language
‘Bike shedding’ was coined by British historian and author C. Northcote Parkinson, famous for his book Parkinson’s Law (1957), but…
