Life
The turf
A joyful Saturday at Ascot recently reminded me that when the old Hurst Park Racecourse (near Hampton Court Palace) closed…
High life
A few weeks after Friedrich Nietzsche bragged to an admirer that he had completed a ruthless attack on our Lord,…
Just bring me a boiled egg
The Connaught Hotel’s formal dining room was always, to me, a place of childish myth; more comforting for being mythical.…
Some (tentative) reasons to be cheerful
Someone sent me a job advert recently for a Junior Research Fellowship at Queen’s College, Oxford. It states: ‘The Queen’s…
Word of the year
Cis
Solution to 2534: Off pitch
The unclued lights are cricket fielding positions. The clues contain the names of 12 present and former England cricketers: Old,…
Born again
In Competition No. 3229, you were invited to provide the story of the Nativity retold in the style of a…
Puzzle no. 683
White to play and mate in 3. Composed by Albert Barbe, 1861. Only the first move is required, but it’s…
The meeting of minds
I learned a great deal at university, about half of it from a man called Raymond Foulk. Ray was not…
Wild life
Laikipia Plateau, Kenya Our local chief Panta wore a government-issue khaki uniform with epaulettes, beret and swagger stick. On a…
Another year of brickbats and bouquets
Sport and politics have always been intertwined, but this was the year they became joined at the hip. Yorkshire racism;…
Dectet
Ten pairs of unclued lights give the names of people whose 89 was ‘50D/2A’ (six words in total). They include…
Twelve questions for Christmas
1. ‘I like the game, the money, and the fame.’ Which Twitter-loving top grandmaster said that, in response to an…
Christmas quiz
Set by Christopher Howse. Illustrated by Castro
Aussie Life
The slur issued by Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe in the Chamber last week towards Hollie Hughes reaffirmed one thing, that…
Aussie Language
Nick Cater has coined what I think is a brilliant new expression the ‘laptop class’. This is his vivid and…
Small-minded
In Competition No. 3228, you were invited to provide a well-known extract from adult literature rewritten for inclusion in an…
Puzzle 11 December 2021
White to play and mate in 2. Composed by W.A. Shinkman, Montreal Spectator, 1880. As things stand, White has no…
Bridge
All the best people play bridge. Stephen Sondheim, who died two weeks ago, was mad about the game. In his…
Low life
Noticing via this Low Life column that I had trench fever, the Western Front Association treated me to a year’s…
The turf
In the first such case for 20 years, former rider Freddy Tylicki, paralysed and wheelchair-bound since his mount Nellie Dean…
Real life
‘Did you hear it?’ said a friend of mine, red-faced with the flush of a piece of news she couldn’t…
Based
My grown-up friends don’t use based in its new slangy sense, so I asked Veronica (whom I still think of…
Carlsen’s breakthrough
Game 6 of the Carlsen–Nepomniachtchi world championship match was one for the ages. After draws in the first five games,…
The final showdown
The good citizens of Stevenage would be well advised to prepare extensively for the likely open-top bus parade of their…
