Life
Word of the week: ‘Granular’, a word used to suggest in-depth analysis
‘Just two sugars,’ said my husband as I passed him his tea. He is cutting down. I doubt he would…
An extraordinary encounter in a New York taxi
New York If I wrote this in one of those newspaper diaries about metropolitan life, no one would believe…
It was carnage in our French cave
Evenings, I sit in a chair facing the cave interior and Catriona lies on the new sofa facing me (and,…
How to destroy a house from the ground up
Lying in bed one night as the rain pounded down, I became aware of a yellow patch forming on the…
My hot tips for the coming season
Trainer Dan Skelton and his jockey brother Harry have 100 winners on the board already but for most of us…
Bridge
DO NOT DOUBLE PARTSCORES WHEN PLAYING TEAMS. Here is Geir Helgemo somehow fooling his expert opponents into defending like total…
Dante’s millions
As I write, the London world championship is tied at 3½-3½, after seven games. In striving to move ahead, the…
no. 533
White to play. This is a variation from Caruana-Carlsen, World Championship, London 2018. White has sacrificed a piece in order…
Trumpian verse
In Competition No. 3075 you were invited to submit poems by Donald Trump. The Beautiful Poetry of Donald Trump, which…
2386: Outside what we know
Three unclued lights featured the remaining ones, two of two words, the others paired. Two of them do double duty.…
to 2383: Flagged
The unclued lights are presenters of BLUE PETER: individually at 39; pairs are 3/2, 7/22, 15A/15D, 15A/17, 25/14, and 32/31,…
My wife has gone back to work – and I’ve turned into a SADDO
When I proposed to Caroline back in 2000, she was a trainee solicitor and I was a freelance journalist. In…
The Battle for Britain
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Trump may have a point about fake news
In recent years, much scrutiny has been paid to the workings of social media algorithms. Driven by escalating competition for…
Dear Mary: How can I turn my arrogant son into a snowflake?
Q. I am organising my 30th birthday party weekend at a large country house kindly lent to me by friends…
The paradox of Burgundy
I was trying to remember what I once knew about the theology of the Reformation and especially the various factions’…
Word of the week: ‘cakeism’
Latest despatches from the Dictionary Wars bring news of Oxford’s words of the year, a counterblast to last week’s words…
I love life – and girls – too much to act my age
New York A little Austrian count was born to my daughter last week in Salzburg, early in the morning of…
France’s second world war shame
The monument to this French village’s war dead is a plain white stone block with the head of a grizzled…
Education, spiritual guidance and a good cappuccino: the new face of the NHS
Left at the Dementia Café, right at the Sleep Office, past the Spiritual Care Centre… This was my journey through…
Bridge
It’s no surprise that so many bridge players are computer programmers or systems analysts; it’s an ideal game for those…
Paradise mislaid
World champion Magnus Carlsen missed several chances to win with black in the first game of his title defence, currently…
no. 532
Black to play. This is a variation from Carlsen–Caruana (Game 2), London 2018. White has forked the black bishop and…
We’re scamming
In Competition No. 3074 you were invited to submit a scam letter ghostwritten by a well-known author, living or dead.…
2385: R and R
The theme is two historic people who were contemporaries. Unclued lights give their forenames, places of birth and death and…
