Life
Bridge
Have you ever been at a bridge event and heard someone exclaim: ‘He Grosvenor’d me!’ They are referring to a…
Lindores Abbey online
The Lindores Abbey Distillery in Fife, Scotland was an idyllic setting for an exciting rapid event last year, won by…
Domestic bliss?
In Competition No. 3152 you were invited to supply a poem about the joys — or otherwise — of the…
A memory of Burgundy
More than two months: who would have thought it possible? Before the great closure, I had been trying to decide…
2461: Hot off?
The unclued lights (individually or four pairs) lead to a word or phrase which includes a thematic component. Across 1…
High life
Vienna Somebody once described Vienna as a top opera performed by understudies. The remark was unquestionably witty, but utterly false…
Low life
I walked to the salon in fiery sunshine. Gorgeous, zaftig Elody was wearing a short satin dressing gown of silver…
Full stream ahead
From time to time, every industry must adapt to some inconvenient technological advance. Suddenly, some part of what you offer…
Protestors have brought down the lockdown
I wasn’t surprised to see that a woman whose father died at a care home in Bicester in April has…
Dear Mary
Q. Now we are instructed to mingle again, I’m sure I’m not alone in being surprised to find an awkwardness…
Real life
The two horses looked like they had never seen anything like it. They had wound up in a dark car…
The Battle for Britain
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Solution to 2458: Bardicarum
The unclued lights Across are Shakespearean LORDS and the Down ones are LADIES. (The plant ‘lords and ladies’ is an…
The turf
Horse racing, it turns out, wasn’t the first sport back in post-lockdown action: that distinction went to pigeon racing when…
Take the knee
That sympathetic physician, Sir Thomas Browne, thought himself austere in conversation. ‘Yet, at my devotion,’ he confessed in Religio Medici…
Home truths
In Competition No. 3151 you were invited to imagine famous authors reflecting on their struggles with DIY. Highlights in a…
2460: Sleaze
The same word appears as seven headwords in Chambers. Unclued lights (including two pairs and one of three words, one…
Why is YouTube so afraid of free speech?
On Sunday, the hosts of Trigger–nometry, a YouTube show, posted an interview they’d done with Peter Hitchens. They labelled it…
Crunch time
Now that I have considered Monster Munch I decide to eat one mindfully. I put it in my mouth, and…
Wild life
I used to live in Mogadishu for months at a time, cooped up in compounds behind fortified walls. Venturing on…
High life
Wolfsegg, Austria I have finally understood what’s wrong with the modern world: motorways. These dehumanising slabs of asphalt covering our…
Garden tools
Hours of googling have left me unable to find the essay on domestic horticulture, written by a Victorian aristocrat, which…
Hashtag
‘So my poor wife rose by five o’clock in the morning, before day, and went to market and bought fowls…
Dear Mary
Q. I own a small, somewhat shabby and antiquated but well-located flat in central London which I have been happy…
The Battle for Britain
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