Life
Our B&B is the opposite of organic
‘You need a Wwoofer,’ said the guest as he luxuriated in the big armchair by the roaring fire in our…
How not to behave at a London gentleman’s club
After a 5 a.m. start, I arrived at the departure gate in Nice airport to discover there was an air…
Spectator Competition: All grown up
For Competition 3410 you were invited to imagine a celebrated character from a children’s book in later life. There were…
Is it ‘off his own back’ or ‘off his own bat’?
During the last Olympics, Jane Edwards from Worcestershire wrote to the Times observing that Mrs Malaprop herself would have found…
2711: Homework – solution
Written about AUSTRALIA – ‘I LOVE A SUNBURNT COUNTRY/ A LAND OF SWEEPING PLAINS’ – is taken from DOROTHEA MACKELLAR’s…
Full English
Michael Adams took first place in a strongly contested English Championship, held in Kenilworth in July. The veteran elite grandmaster…
Make Trump Britain’s prime minister
When I was a young man, the claim that Britain was in danger of becoming the 51st state was a…
The Ashes just got spicy
You don’t have to look hard to find swaths of sports fans around the world who dislike England – England’s…
Dear Mary: How do I calculate how much caviar to take?
Q. While on holiday in Corfu, we met a rather nice man who invited us to his house for dinner.…
Aussie life
Nobody in the current federal government worked harder than Penny Wong to thaw the freeze in Sino-Australian relations caused by…
Language
The recent severe weather events on the east coast were labelled (by our official Weather Bureau) as a ‘bomb cyclone’…
The lanyard class is imploding – and it can’t blame Musk
I was surprised to read a report by Sunder Katwala’s thinktank British Future saying the UK is a ‘powder keg’…
Dear Mary: Help! My neighbour keeps getting me drunk
Q. We have a neighbour who always overfills my glass. I beg her not to. Even if I commit the…
The roundabout is a symbol of British liberty
In my last article, I introduced you to the ‘paceometer’, which shows how the relationship between an extra unit of…
The English pinot noir that rivals Burgundy
England is now and history. The other day, in the Weald of Kent, now was England and pleasure. We were…
Lefties on a Plane: my real-life horror movie
Trapped in the middle seat next to a Dublin businessman in the window seat, I was subjected to a monologue…
What’s the score on ‘score’?
The courtship rituals of the Treasury and the Office for Budget Responsibility last ten weeks. The consummation is a fiscal…
The magic of Danish dream cake
I am, for the most part, a rule follower and a people pleaser. It’s one of the reasons I love…
