Life
Spectator Competition: Wintry look
Competition 3437 invited you to submit a passage or poem incorporating the line ‘Why, what’s the matter, That you have…
Dear Mary: How can I stop my friend from ruining books I love?
Q. Our daughter is very keen on a young man from her office whom she has brought home to stay…
Like dining with Elrond in Rivendell: Corenucopia reviewed
Corenucopia by Clare Smyth is in Belgravia, amid a line of interior-design shops, and it is prettier than all of…
The day Peter Mandelson tried to get me sacked
Assuming it was full of junk, I tried to pull the trunk out of the way but I couldn’t move…
Should I be a Jew, Muslim or Hindu?
Time is running out. We all have to meet our maker at some point, and although I’m fit as a…
Aussie life
In Queensland, Victoria or New South Wales the cancellation of a writers’ festival would be an inconvenience. ‘Bummer,’ some people…
Language
Sometimes words are invented just because people wish there were such words – and (I suppose) wish that what they…
The secret to a good marriage is drink
Many years ago, when entertaining my then girlfriend (now wife) for our first Valentine’s Day, I spent a considerable amount…
The hellish side of Bumble
Valentine’s Day is upon us. I’ve never liked it. As an ugly ginger kid with a beautiful – much older…
Smashing South Africa’s last relationship taboo
Cape Town As a young FT stringer in Dar es Salaam in the 1980s, I used to hang out with…
The real cost of the bureaucratic mindset
If you ever want to drive online commenters insane, all you need do is write an article headlined ‘Why it’s…
Dear Mary: how can I shut down my husband’s screaming yawns?
Q. I run a busy company with a workforce of 150, where I need to have short, to-the-point discussions with…
Me, myself and the i
Misuse of myself ‘should be a capital offence’, suggests Oliver Duff, the editor of the i Paper. ‘As reflexive pronouns,…
I broke my phone… and then the repairman
The man in the phone repair shop smiled all too confidently and told me that there was nothing I could…
When did gyms become so unfriendly?
One of the drawbacks of being on the jabs is that you can lose muscle mass as well as body…
Spectator Competition: Love is…
For Competition 3436 you were invited to submit a poem whose first line is ‘O my love is like [fill…
Puzzling it out
‘This is why you don’t do puzzles, kids,’ drawled Magnus Carlsen, after a lucky escape in a recent blitz game…
Aussie life
According to a Tokyo University study of dogs, we can disregard the usual male-female stereotypes, as their research shows boy…
