Life
Bridge
It’s hard to think of anything more expensive at the bridge table than doubling the opponents and then watching them…
Low life
The porter rolled me off the trolley and on to the bed, wished me a good day and departed. My…
Real life
‘You’ll come back when you’re in enough pain,’ said the osteopath as I walked out of his door. That was…
Haut topic
It seemed a suitable topic for a bank holiday. We were discussing Haut-Brion, a bank-breaking wine. There is a question…
High life
New York The acerbic writer Gore Vidal was once asked which period of history he would choose to have lived…
Aussie Life
It’s always sad to see the end of a love affair, particularly when the lovers had seemed so enraptured of…
Aussie Language
Writing in The Speccie Dot Wordsworth said: ‘The most effective weapon in cultural warfare is to find a form of…
Where free speech is a matter of life and death
Last August I wrote a column in The Spectator’s US edition urging Donald Trump to take a leaf out of…
The Battle for Britain
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Daredevil kings
The fifth match game between Potter and Zukertort, played in London in 1875, saw a dogged struggle. The final position…
Puzzle No. 655
White to play, Kharlov–Ernst, Haninge 1992. Black’s last move, g6-g5 was a decisive mistake. Which move did White play to…
Canterbury revisited
In Competition No. 3200, you were invited to retell one of Chaucer’s tales in the style of another author. The…
2508: Grovels
The unclued lights, (one pair, one hyphened and one of two words) are of a kind. One clue leads to…
The turf
Humans are herd animals too. Jockeys, trainers, owners and those enjoying the few prized media attendance slots for racing behind…
High life
New York The Big Bagel is getting so bad that even the baddies are demanding the fuzz do something. As…
Bridge
One of the pleasures of kibitzing online tournaments is that when an intriguing hand comes up, you can flick back…
Real life
‘We’re closed for lunch,’ said the farmer, sitting behind the counter of his farm shop with a scowl on his…
Athletics is running on empty
Whatever became of athletics? It’s fallen nearly as far as show jumping and that is a long way. But the…
to 2505: Endgame
The unclued lights are the final headwords for B, D, E, F, S, T, U, W, as listed in Chambers.…
Low life
Walking up through the Stink Street medieval arch with a bag of shopping, I spotted Michael between the oleander branches…
Paling into insignificance
The Roof Garden is a pale, Nordic-style restaurant at the top of the glorious Pantechnicon in Belgravia — formerly a…
Dear Mary
Q. Once restrictions are lifted, our annual walking group has planned a week’s walk with after-walk gatherings in a different…
Great
‘Why didn’t they call it Very British Railways?’ asked my husband. Unwittingly (as in most of his remarks), he had…
Aussie Life
Unlike most of the panellists on The Gruen Transfer, I still make ads for a living, and try to exercise…
Aussie Language
The Australian Breastfeeding Association has declared the word ‘mother’ to be ‘non-inclusive’. Does this make linguistic sense? Not for a…
