Life
Question time
In Competition No. 3000 you were invited to provide an answer, in verse or prose, to a famous literary question…
2312: Bandleader
Two unclued lights form the title by which a 38 32 is commonly known. This title’s first word defines one…
2309: Complicated
Corrections of misprints in clues give TANGLED UP IN BLUE, the title of a song by Bob Dylan. Answers to…
Dear Mary
Q. I am a member of a well-known country house opera society, and I organise annual trips to performances for…
Rosé-tinted glasses
It was a typical bank holiday. Usual English weather: glorious, until you leave home without a brolly. Then fickleness supervenes…
High life
I feel like an obituary writer, what with Nick Scott, Roger Moore, Alistair Horne — all great buddies — and…
The Battle for Britain
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Low life
My latest bed partner is a seven-year-old lad. That first night we slept together in my double bed, I hardly…
Reference
When Dickens wanted to buy a house in 1837, he wrote to Richard Bentley, who had started the magazine in…
Real life
‘You’re probably excited about your new service and keen to start using it as soon as you can,’ said the…
Race, gender and a terrifying witch hunt
A leading article appeared in Nature last week in defence of intelligence research. It lamented the fact that it is…
Wild life
The guests at my brother-in-law Rick’s 70th birthday lunch party were distinguished, silver-haired, well heeled. Long before Rick rescued the…
Don’t look for any merit in meritocracy
A few years ago, someone asked me how to fix social care costs for the elderly. One eventual idea of…
Bridge
It’s the funniest bridge story I’ve heard in ages. At the recent Lady Milne championship (the women’s Home Internationals), one…
Vote Basman
To the best of my knowledge, Michael Basman is the first officially titled chess master to ever stand in a UK…
No. 459
Black to play. This position is from Mecking-Basman, Hastings 1966. How did Black make the most of his active knights?…
Bridge
The last days of May see all the ongoing tournaments coming to an end: both TGR’s and Young Chelsea’s Super…
Thoroughly modern
In 1972, in collaboration with George Botterill, two-times British champion, I published a revolutionary book on 1 … g6 which…
No. 548
Black to play. This position is from Arnason-Keene, London 1981. This position also arose from a Modern Defence. How did…
A bad lot
In Competition No. 2999 you were invited to supply a poem which takes as its first line W.S. Gilbert’s ‘A policeman’s…
2311: Keith II
The unclued lights, (two of two words), are of a kind. Chambers does not give the solution at 12 Across.…
Solution to 2308: Landmark
Solution to 2308: Landmark This puzzle was Doc’s 600th to be published in this series. The unclued lights are two-word…
Dear Mary
Q. Re getting away from bores at drinks parties (Dear Mary, 20 May). I take issue with the idea that…
Food
Pollen Street Social lives in a Georgian house on Pollen Street, Mayfair, a narrow curve between Hanover Street and Maddox…
High Life
New York Although both guilt and innocence fascinate me, I’m not so sure that there is such a thing…
