Life
Doomscrolling
In 2019, Boris Johnson hit out at ‘the doomsters and the gloomsters’. I was surprised then to find that the…
Diplomatic distractions
My dear friend Richard Stow is a most congenial fellow. A serious financial entrepreneur, he is also a clubman and…
The Battle for Britain
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2547: Ascending order
The (unrelated) unclued lights (one of three words, four of two words, (one with an apostrophe), one pair and two…
How to create a bottleneck
I spend quite a lot of time attacking what I call ‘motorway service station’ path design. More attentive readers of…
The turf
You don’t always have to win to enjoy it. At the end of the £100,000 Paddy Power Imperial Cup at…
Dear Mary
Q. These days I am on a tight budget while many of my friends are still able to spend freely.…
Free speech, Facebook and me
By the time you read this the new draft of the Online Safety Bill should be on the DCMS website.…
Black forest gateau
Kitsch is something of my stock-in-trade. And it doesn’t get more kitsch than Black Forest gateau. Pots of cream, pints…
Real life
The lodger looked at me blankly and pronounced wearily, as though intoning something he was tired of parroting, that I…
Solution to 2544: Fives
First prize Leigh Hughes, Bootle, Merseyside Runners-up Francis Wheen, Pleshey, Essex; Robin Jolly, Selsey, Chichester, West Sussex Got something to…
A life in limericks
In Competition No. 3240, you were invited to tell the life story of a well-known figure in three limericks. In…
Low life
Catriona has a commission to paint the 17th-century façade of the chapel of St Joseph’s. She’d made a start when…
Aussie life
There’s nothing like a war and a flood to ease pretend problems like exaggerated viral outbreaks off the front pages.…
2546: Picture book
43 (two words) created 1A (four words) and 3 10 14 (seven words). The latter inspired 17 30, whose work…
Real life
‘This is my father, and his pronoun is he,’ said the builder boyfriend, checking his dad into Accident and Emergency.…
Embolden
The most emboldened man on earth must be Vladimir Putin. Everything seems to embolden him. Treating Russia as a pariah…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. Rory Sutherland recently wrote about high-end takeaways (Wiki Man, 19 February). In the last London lockdown, I was fortunate…
The waste land
I was going to be jolly this week, for variety and denial, but I changed my mind. Instead, I wonder…
Time for rugby to sort itself out
If you were one of the sharp-suited head honchos at CVC Capital Partners, the private equity megalith that has ploughed…
Puzzle No. 693
Black to play. Shirov-Kramnik, Groningen 1993. Shirov threatens Rg3-h3+ so Kramnik forced a draw: 1…Rxg7+ 2 Rxg7+ Kh6 3 Rg8…
Bridge
The Lederer Memorial Trophy was carried off this year by my lovely friend Jonathan Harris, albeit with a little help…
My three straight weeks of saintliness
I’m currently standing at the top of Brownie Point Mountain, having spent the past two weeks looking after our three…
High life
Gstaad This is my last week in the Alps and I’m trying to get it all in – skiing, cross-country,…
Solution to 2543: Parts of Speech
Unclued lights are the many parts each man plays, from the ‘Seven ages’ speech by Jaques (29D) in As You…
