Life
Low life
I got off the plane at Changi still pleasantly sedated by Xanax, passed through the ‘nothing to declare’ channel, and…
Bridge
I’m writing this from Stuart Wheeler’s beautiful villa in Tangier, in the hills just above the bay, where for a…
Bronstein’s legacy
Last week I focused on the games and somewhat tragic career of the ingenious David Bronstein. Before his time the…
no. 475
White to play. This position is from Jobava-Nepomniachtchi, FIDE World Cup, Tbilisi 2017. Can you spot White’s winning coup? Answers…
2328: Second coming
6A and 42 (whose unchecked letters give IDEA) combine to suggest the title of a novel. Remaining unclued lights give…
to 2325: Hard task
The theme was PIGS. First prize J. E. Green, St Albans, HertfordshireRunners-up Michael Moran, Penrith, Cumbria; John M. Brown, Rolleston…
Watching the clock
In Competition No. 3015 you were invited to submit a poem about Big Ben’s bongs. The decision to remove…
Dear Mary
Q. My partner and I recently had two close friends — one a Peer, the other a former Member of the…
Gorblimey trousers
Piles of black plastic rubbish sacks lie in the streets of Birmingham because, since the end of June, the dustmen…
Real life
Stefano and his boys got to work with gusto and within a few days the upstairs of my house started…
Bridge
This summer was the longest I have gone without playing bridge since I began about 20 years ago. Not one…
Study in obsession
Genna Sosonko is a writer and grandmaster who straddles two great chess cultures, Holland and the USSR, his chosen and native…
No. 474
Black to play. This position is from Carlsen-Bu, Fidé World Cup, Tbilisi 2017. Can you spot Black’s winning coup? Answers…
2327: Exhibition
Five unclued lights are titles of works by a person whose name is formed by two unclued lights. Three clues…
2324: In the frame
11, 42 and perimeter entries are titles of COMPUTER-ANIMATED FILMS. First prize B. Midgley, Ettington, Stratford-upon-AvonRunners-up Arabella Grandage, Bradenham, Bucks;…
High life
I’m in Venice for the film festival that just ended and, as an American humorist once wired his paper: ‘Streets…
The Battle for Britain
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Low life
The army patrols at Nice airport go around three abreast, steely-eyed, fingers on the trigger. They walk slowly and scrutinise…
Why did you do it, Roy?
Poor old Roy Hodgson, why did he take on Crystal Palace? He was having lunch at a Côte in a…
Do what they do, not what they say
Last month, two law professors named Amy Wax and Larry Alexander published a piece in the Philadelphia Inquirer praising ‘bourgeois’…
The turf
Racing moves off the back pages only when its opponents have bad news to gloat over. Two examples lately have…
In silent misremembrance
Foxlow is near Golden Square in west Soho, where drunken hacks used to take long drunken lunches before having stupid…
From me to you
In Competition No. 3014 you were invited to submit a love poem written by one contemporary politician to another. …
Dear Mary
Q. Some rather flashy new neighbours of ours — I won’t mention their names as his will be familiar to…
Go ballistic
I had always thought that to go ballistic was the same as to go nuclear, metaphorically. But the ballistic figure…
