Life
Low life
Catriona and I were late for lunch at Vernon’s because I couldn’t get out of bed. The four of them…
Bridge
The Gold Cup is the most prestigious Open Teams event in Britain, and has been ever since Colonel ‘Pops’ Beasley…
The turf
I know what Keats was on about with his mists and mellow fruitfulness, but autumn is less of a joy…
High life
They have stepped into the pop-culture spotlight via the HBO hit Succession, a hatchet job on the very rich and…
This grotesque failure to market rugby
Could rugby union get any better? The entertainment in the Premiership is breathtaking and the overall product as good as…
Mind your language
There’s a rude gesture in Pickwick that I don’t quite understand. Mr Jackson, a young lawyer’s clerk in conversation with…
Dear Mary
Q. On a train journey the other day I sat opposite someone I found immensely attractive. We struck up a…
Totally bats
There is a Batman restaurant in London, or rather there was: Savini at the Criterion on Piccadilly Circus. Savini was…
The Battle for Britain
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Chicken Marbella
What is it about retro food? I don’t mean nostalgic food, from school dinner favourites to your grandmother’s signature dishes.…
Rhodes to nowhere
I’m sympathetic to Oliver Dowden’s formula for defusing culture-war disputes about statues of controversial historic figures: ‘retain and explain’. That…
Chapter and verse
In Competition No. 3220, you were invited to supply a newly discovered short story by a well-known 19th- or 20th-century…
The sudden mate
The hero pauses, plays the move, and announces ‘Checkmate!’ The villain crumples in shock. It’s a scene played out countless…
2528: Not to Lose
Unclued entries are words (one hyphened) or phrases (three of four words each, one of three words, two each of…
Puzzle no. 675
White to play and mate in one. I found this puzzle online, composed by someone with the pseudonym ‘Illion’. I…
To 2525: Prime Times
The [5 Down] MILESTONE puzzle number 2525 is the product of PRIME numbers 101 TIMES 5 TIMES 5, equivalently the…
Aussie Life
One of the most compelling things about Stanley Kubrick’s sci-fi masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey, is the way we don’t…
Aussie Language
A new study by researchers at the University of Western Australia shows that the most trusted accent in Australia is…
The Battle for Britain
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My nightmare weekend of deer and dogs
Caroline and I are just back from a weekend break in Scotland and, nice though it was, I hadn’t realised…
Festive season
‘Here you are, darling,’ I said to my husband. ‘These lines might have been written for you: “Drinke, quaffe, be…
High life
Around 20 or so years ago I had a point for match point on a perfect grass court at Fort…
Low life
The chesty Corsican taxi driver was giving me his earnest appraisal of the way things were headed in France politically.…
Sometimes wrongs make a right
It is interesting to consider what would have happened if the Covid virus had emerged in 1921. Or 1821. Or…
Puzzle No. 674
White to play. Mamedyarov–Artemiev, MeltwaterChampions Final 2021. Black’s last move, was Ra8-a4, attacking the pawn on g4. But it allowed…
