Life
Bridge
What goes through a world-class player’s mind when he or she stops to think for an age during a hand?…
Low life
Bernafay Wood B&B, Somme, France I came up on the TGV yesterday from the Midi to northern France and it…
The best wine since incarceration
The woodpecker jinked across the lawn like an especially cunning partridge. Its goal was a skilfully constructed bird table with…
Dear Mary
Q. During lockdown I have done my level best to assist with household chores. Last week, while my wife was…
Love
It is 17 years since we began to hear McDonald’s: ‘I’m lovin’ it.’ This was always annoying, but most of…
Does the curriculum really need ‘decolonising’?
Layla Moran, the Lib Dems’ education spokesman, has written to Gavin Williamson urging him to do something about ‘systemic racism’…
The Battle for Britain
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Now you’re talking
This week’s Wiki Man may read a bit oddly. You see, I haven’t ‘written’ it at all; I’ve dictated it…
Aussie Life
It has been brought to my attention that the rename Victoria suggestion I made in these pages two weeks ago…
I’ve resorted to cooking
We cannot bear more drive-through or take-out or near-fatal snack. I am convinced of the boredom of my female ancestors,…
Dear Mary
Q. Just before Covid, we moved out of London with the intention of having a quiet life in the country.…
The Battle for Britain
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Swathe
At Glastonbury in 2017 ‘a whole swathe of young people had a political awakening’, chanting ‘Oh, Jeremy Corbyn’, said the…
Bridge
What do we want? We want to play bridge. But who anticipated Covid-19 was going to close every bridge club…
Low life
Avid Spectator reader Mr Brown had endured the very strictest of lockdowns for family health reasons in Tunbridge Wells. Since…
Hats off to Liverpool
Where were we? Oh yes, Liverpool were running away with the Premier League and a mere three months later have…
Wild life
As we all know by now, the pandemic distorts time like a concertina. Life before March is a world that…
Real Life
My friend turned up wearing a snorkelling mask, beneath which she had tied a bandana around her mouth. On her…
High life
Gstaad A friend of mine who lives here wants to start a literary festival and asked me if I had…
The censorship spiral
It’s open season on mavericks and dissenters at the moment. If you publicly challenge any of the sacred nostrums of…
Puzzle no. 611
White to play. From the ridiculous to the sublime. According to the ‘Chess Notes’ website, a game won by Edward…
2464: Topsy-turvy
14 which is unclued below, but is clued elsewhere, has to be divided into three components (one a Spanish…
Solution to 2461: Hot off?
The unclued lights include the name of a British daily newspaper; 3/26A, 9/35, 12, 24, 28/31D and 34/21. First…
Al fresco
In Competition No. 3155 you were invited to supply a poem entitled ‘The Picnic’. This challenge was prompted by a…
Twitch pageant
Chess has much in common with video games — not least, the eager disdain of uninformed critics. An 1859 article…
