Life
no. 580
Dubov-Svane, White to play. Later in the event, Dubov played another masterpiece, sacrificing a rook to reach this extraordinary position.…
It’s a date!
In Competition No. 3124 you were invited to compose clerihews about any date in the calendar. I was very grateful…
2434: Eat it!
The unclued lights (two of two words), individually or as one pair, are of a kind. Across 9 City…
to 2431: Pride of place
Each of the pairs of unclued lights is a CITY (formed from the letters in the yellow squares) and its…
Why does someone keep sending me furniture?
When a new vacuum cleaner was delivered to my house last week I assumed it was a belated birthday present…
The Battle for Britain
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England’s rugby team are embarrassingly sore losers
Sports events come and go, but good manners, as William of Wykeham might have put it, last for ever. Or…
Dear Mary: What should I do about a Lib Dem friend who can no longer take a joke?
Q. I sent a WhatsApp message to a Lib Dem friend of 15 years. ‘How are you finding being a…
Back in the Babington Triangle: Roth Bar & Grill reviewed
The Roth Bar & Grill exists on an art-farm called Durslade in Bruton, Somerset, which is also the country outpost…
Why is a ladybird called a ‘bishy barnabee’?
People in different regions like to think their dialects incomprehensible to outsiders, yet they can usually come up with quite…
My present abode is one of the great deco houses left intact in the Bagel
New York What follows will bore the pants off you, but at least it beats another piece on Brexit.…
My image of the young Jeremy Corbyn is not a flattering one
I found the stone and the key underneath and let myself into the cottage — brr! I immediately made a…
Who will take the threat to horses from fireworks seriously?
Remember remember the 5th of November, when Britain’s most controversial pub chain stages a massive firework display in the middle…
The best thing about autumn is the return of jumping
Never mind Keats’s mists and mellow fruitfulness, or even that glorious autumnal odour of wet dog — a regular accompaniment…
Bridge
Erikas Vainikonis and his father Vytas are terrific bridge players and have supported the game very generously. Their brilliant new…
Bronze in Batumi
The hammering downpour before the last round in Batumi was, in retrospect, a precious omen. After all, England’s medal drought…
no. 579
Black to play. Erwin l’Ami–Luke McShane, Batumi, 2019. The pawn on e6 looks powerful, but White’s king is more vulnerable…
Station to station
In Competition No. 3123 you were invited to submit a poem that begins ‘By Waterloo Station I sat down and…
2433: House and garden
Across unclued lights (one of two words) combine with down ones to suggest the surnames of four famous English painters;…
to 2430: Petite traveller
On 19 October John le Carré turned eighty-eight (hinted at by TWO FAT LADIES (19/26/20)). His real forenames are DAVID…
40 years on, Life of Brian has made the world a darker place
I went to the Battle of Ideas at the Barbican last weekend, a free speech festival organised by the Brexit…
The Battle for Britain
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How veganism became mainstream
I have just returned from Canada, which seems to share Britain’s new-found obsession with veganism. There, chains such as Burger…
Dear Mary: how can I stop my dad treating my mum like a slave?
Q. Dad takes an old-fashioned approach to marriage: I have never seen him clear his plate and he does not…
The delights of Spanish wine – and art
First, an apology. In my last column, I appeared to be saying that good champagne does not age. This must…
