Life
Real life
The dynamics of the village can only be understood with reference to what’s happening to the parking. Unless you study…
Bridge
For those of us who are prone to anxiety before playing in big tournaments, there are plenty of self-help books…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. My wife’s father, who she adored, has died and she is to be his sole beneficiary. She intends to…
On the same page
In the West End of London there is an alley which insinuates its way between the Charing Cross Road and…
End of the road
When my daughters learned to drive, I suggested they take their tests in automatics as driving manual cars would soon…
Mind your language: Stations
In Kyiv they have voted to changethe names of some metro stations. Heroes of the Dnieper is to become Heroes…
High life
A couple more weeks in the Bagel and then on to dear old London. I’ve had a very good time…
The turf
Seeing Fully Wet win the European Breeders Fund Maiden Stakes at Goodwood on Saturday was a genuine source of pleasure,…
Low life
The main side effect of the six-month course of chemotherapy was ‘fatigue’. The main side effect of the three-monthly hormone…
Aussie life
The education of the young is an essential component for the transmission of culture from one generation to the next.…
Language
We all know ‘adult’ the noun, and we know what an ‘adult’ is (‘because,’ as a friend said to me,…
The only way is up for England’s cricketers
The timing of Brendon McCullum’s appointment as England’s Test match coach couldn’t be better for him, or for the matey…
2556: Recent origins
The unclued entries have something in common, and are the most recent of their type. One umlaut should be ignored…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. I’m 28 and lucky enough to own a four-bed house in Notting Hill. I let three of the rooms…
Et in Arcade ego
I should know better than to visit restaurants assembled as if from disparate bricks, like thrift-shop Duplo: but the ever-credulous…
Solution to 2553: Island alien
The unclued lights when arranged as 12, 11, 43, 5, 24, 1D, 1A form Chambers’definition of MULLET at 30D. First…
Sparks
‘It’s not as nice as it looks,’ said my husband, not leaving time to look it in the mouth before…
Puzzle No. 703
White to play. Vachier-Lagrave-Caruana, Bucharest 2022. The Bh4 can retreat to g3, f2 or e1. Which one is best, and…
A fine romance
In Competition No. 3249, you were invited to submit an extract from a Mills & Boon novel whose central character…
Rock, paper, scissors
The Superbet Chess Classic in Bucharest concluded last weekend in a dramatic tiebreak between Wesley So, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Levon…
High life
New York Living a life of pleasure is fun, but it can also become tiresome. Living an ethical life of…
Real life
‘You coming to help us poo pick?’ said my friend Terry, in a desperate sounding voice message. The builder boyfriend…
Low life
After two nights at Le Grau-du-Roi (the King’s Pond) and a night spent within the medieval walls of Aigues-Mortes (Stagnant…
Bridge
It was time to celebrate! The Schapiro Spring Foursomes was back again after the enforced Covid break, and the EBU’s…
The courage of Katharine Birbalsingh
Five years ago, I put my friend Nell Butler in touch with Katharine Birbalsingh, Britain’s most outspoken headmistress. I was…
