Life
Dear Mary: What do I say when people want to visit my family’s stately home for free?
Q. My husband and I were among the first to arrive at a recent large house party in Scotland. We…
Wine, women and willow: a perfect combo for a perfect English summer day
The first time I went to Lord’s was in 1970, just before the unofficial Test series which replaced the cancelled…
Petrichor: an awkward word for a pleasant phenomenon
I’m not too sure about the word petrichor, invented in 1964 as a label for the pleasant smell frequently accompanying…
Amazon and Facebook: the twin evils of our age
They used to say that the primary function of a boat was to be beautiful. I suppose that is why…
How to survive a French heatwave
Me in a black polo-neck jumper looking sour; Oscar wearing a floppy hat; her youngest daughter nude and stooping to…
Welcome to customer services, Guantanamo Bay-style
The engineer from Beko arrived and got to work trying to mend the new fridge. Having spent a very long…
Bridge
Over the many years I’ve been playing competitive bridge, I’ve managed to cobble together a system-file which now runs to…
Royal shame
Nine-year-old Shreyas Royal, widely regarded as the UK’s best hope to become a future world chess champion, is being deported…
no. 518
Black to play. This is from Howell-McShane, British Championship, Hull 2018. This was the conclusion of the game that enabled…
A new Jerusalem
In Competition No. 3060 you were invited to provide an updated version of ‘Jerusalem’ starting with the words ‘And did…
2371: In a paddy
In loving memory of 20 41 Considine (10/10/27–24/7/18), the doyenne of crossword compilers. The unclued lights and those clued without…
to 2368: Cobbled together
The unclued lights (6, 20/9, 21, 23/31, 30D/13, 34/3 and 42/32) are characters in Coronation Street with its COBBLED streets. First…
Thanks, Ryanair, for wrecking our holiday
The Young family’s annual summer holiday could not have got off to a poorer start, thanks to Ryanair. As veteran…
Battle for Britain
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Sport will not survive if it keeps being sold to the highest bidder
It’s just too hot and too early to get worked up about football, so the two highlights of the late-summer…
How should you deal with a competitive best friend?
Q. Good friends, who moved away from our city suburb a couple of years ago, retain a pied-à-terre the better…
Temper, a new pizza restaurant in Covent Garden, land of the itinerant rich
Temper is a new pizza restaurant in Mercers Walk, Covent Garden, and it is as glib and polished as you…
‘Crest’ and the absurd language of heraldry
A friend of my husband’s, yet a well-educated man, said in conversation as we walked to Tate Modern: ‘Is that…
Sailing past the charred eastern coast of Greece
On board S/Y Puritan I’m sailing off the charred eastern coast of Athens where so many died last week,…
Confessions of a cave-dweller continued
The cave house next to ours is let out to weekly renters. A green-eyed German with a ponytail came out…
The only guarantee I have is that there is no guaranteeing my guarantee
Beko. I always want to sing that song by Peter Gabriel from the movie about the South African freedom fighter…
The man who rode 2,300 winners
On a foggy November day in 1965 the young son of a Barbadian police chief was one of six contestants…
Bridge
It’s that time of year again — summer and its attendant holidays. No bridge for me for a month, unless…
Rice gambit
The recent successful revival of the musical Chess, by Sir Tim Rice and the men of Abba, featured some genuine extracts…
no. 517
Black to play. This position is from the classic game Réti-Alekhine, Baden Baden 1925. What was Black’s next move? It…
