Life
Bridge
‘Table presence’ is a funny old expression in bridge. You might think it means what it would in any other…
Free schools are victims of their own success
For the founders of the West London Free School, of which I was one, last Thursday should have been a…
Real life
The two-acre smallholding lived up to its name in being very, very small indeed. We had to squeeze around the…
Aussie Life
Do fish have feelings? And if they do, does anybody care? RSPCA Australia’s willingness to lease their logo to salmon…
Aussie Language
The New York Times has chosen a word to describe what happens to people under Covid restrictions: ‘languishing’. Under lockdown…
The Battle for Britain
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The brave new world of work
Is flexible working better or worse for productivity? What is the correct blend of remote and office work? Billions of…
Low Life
In the New Year I was introduced to a couple who had fled Britain impulsively on New Year’s Eve with…
Real life
‘I’ve got COPD,’ said a friend of mine, not elaborating at all as I stared at him waiting for him…
Bridge
The end to the European Championships Qualifier — from an English perspective — was one of the most dramatic ever…
Dear Mary
Q. My granddaughter Jane has been asked on a date to the Wolseley by George (both pseudonyms). Although she finds…
The stories that are too good to check
Last weekend, Rolling Stone ran a story about an interview an emergency room doctor had given to a local news…
Testing times
In London, the weather is a gentle sashaying mockery. An Indian summer reminds us of the sullen apology of summer…
Quenelles
When Peter Quennell was sent down from Oxford for consorting with a woman called Cara (by Evelyn Waugh’s account), he…
High life
Gstaad Mercedes Benz heir Mick Flick and I have been friends for more than half a century. We both married…
TB or not TB
In Competition No. 3215, you were -invited to supply a poem about Geronimo the alpaca. The camelid’s fate was finally…
Solution to 2520: 5 4 3 2 1
The unclued lights are the names of the six principal presenters of COUNTDOWN (hence 5 4 3 2 1 as…
2523: Monstrous regiment
The unclued Across lights are of a kind when preceded by one word, as are the unclued Down lights (one…
Puzzle no. 670
White to play. Harvey–Roberson, Northumbria Masters 2021. Black’s last move, 37…Kf7-e7 looked plausible, but walked into a clever tactic. What…
Cherry clafoutis
My daydreams at the moment follow a predictable theme. I am on holiday somewhere balmy, with a carafe of cold…
Titles bonanza
At the beginning of August, seeing his outstanding performance at the Fide World Cup in Sochi, I wrote that Ravi…
Aussie Life
As a child in Budapest, I heard my grandfather tell the family around the Sunday lunch table to beware the…
Aussie Language
You’ve often come across the charge that ABC news and current affairs programs are being made by ‘activists’ rather than…
High life
Gstaad Good manners aside, what I miss nowadays is a new, intelligent, finely acted movie. Never have I seen…
The turf
A Sandown Saturday proved the perfect send-off for 12 raceless days on the otherwise wonderful Isle of Mull. A Frankie…
