Life
2545: With a twist
41 (four words) suggests the other unclued lights – which are individual examples (not group names) of a kind –…
Puzzle no. 692
White to play and win. A gem discovered by the Ukrainian composer Vladislav Tarasiuk with Israeli composer Amatzia Avni. How…
The Battle for Britain
Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment below.
The turf
Even when the authorities were refusing Milton Harris the right to renew his training licence after he got his finances…
High life
St Moritz Once upon a time, not that long ago, St Moritz was the world’s greatest resort, an exclusive winter…
Aussie Life
A journalist friend has been writing an advice column rather like The Speccie’s ‘Dear Mary’. He was calling it ‘Ask…
Aussie Language
A small award should be presented to the Australian’s Alice Workman for her new coinage. She has given us a…
Low life
Every Saturday morning Michael rises at four and drives down to the Côte d’Azur to the Magic World car boot…
Puzzle No. 691
Black to play. Maric-Gligoric, Belgrade 1962. White has offered to exchange the rooks on f5 and c3. But Gligoric found…
Similar to
A strange crisis has befallen like. It had long been an object of obloquy and vilification in two functions. The…
Bridge
My friend Nick Sandqvist says that coaching the England juniors is a joy; so great when someone enthusiastic and creative…
The Battle for Britain
Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment below.
Is hooliganism on the way back?
Forty-odd years ago a friend, a Liverpool supporter, somewhat unwisely took his girlfriend to Elland Road for a Leeds match…
2544: Fives
Clues lead to 5-letter solutions. Each set of ten clues is presented in alphabetical order of the solutions. Correct positioning…
A victim of its own mythology
Langan’s, a brasserie off Piccadilly with curling orange neon signage calling its name, is under new management after it fell…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. Three weeks ago I banged my head on the lower branch of our near neighbours’ tree, which I couldn’t…
Mexico is no country for journalists
I’m writing this on my last day in Mexico City, having accompanied my 18-year-old daughter here for the first week…
Solution to 2541: Beastly
The unclued lights form a quartet of three-word terms, each of which has the letter count of (6,6,6) which is…
Single-minded
In Competition No. 3237, you were invited to submit a short story using words of only one syllable. This challenge…
Nakamura the wildcard
Hikaru Nakamura justified his wildcard invitation by taking first place at the Fide Grand Prix in Berlin this month. The…
Real life
‘A diary?’ said the lady in the chintzy gift shop, pronouncing the word very much as Edith Evans said ‘handbag’…
High life
Was it Socrates who said that chaos was the natural state of mankind, and tyranny the usual remedy? Actually it…
Aussie Life
If a week is a long time in politics, two months is a geological epoch, during which not just goalposts…
Aussie Language
Writing in the Daily Telegraph James Morrow referred to something called a preference cascade which he said was a term…
The whine of the Ancient Mariner
I was a bit irritated by all the millennials saying the Superbowl half-time show made them feel old. The 15-minute…
