Life
Dear Mary: how can my friend make her husband wear his hearing aids?
Q. A friend of mine’s husband is in his nineties. They are a delightful couple but the husband has started…
Dinner with a Grand National winner
Not quite nil humanum a me alienum, but I have always been interested in other people’s trades and worlds. That…
Sorry, but saying ‘sex worker’ won’t lift the stigma
‘Of course,’ said my husband in his worst smirky way, as though waiting for an appreciative chuckle, ‘as soon as…
Battle for Britain
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The Godfather
It is often asked how chess became so popular in the USSR. My answer is that most areas of creative…
No. 405
White to play. This position is from Vallejo-Wynn, Bangkok 2016. White has sacrificed a rook and a bishop. He now…
Much ado about nothing?
In Competition No. 2944 you were invited to imagine what characters from Shakespeare’s plays would have made of this year’s…
Your problems solved
Q. A friend of mine’s husband is in his nineties. They are a delightful couple but the husband has started…
Riders and diners
Not quite nil humanum a me alienum, but I have always been interested in other people’s trades and worlds. That…
High life
My, my, the rich are under attack everywhere, and I thank God the Panama Papers didn’t include the name of…
Long life
As we prepare in Britain for our momentous referendum in June, Italy has just had one. It happened last Sunday…
Long life
As we prepare in Britain for our momentous referendum in June, Italy has just had one. It happened last Sunday…
Low life
What consolation in life can Arthur and I find after that defeat at the hands of Manchester United in the…
Low life
What consolation in life can Arthur and I find after that defeat at the hands of Manchester United in the…
Sex worker
‘Of course,’ said my husband in his worst smirky way, as though waiting for an appreciative chuckle, ‘as soon as…
Real life
The cottage of my dreams (or possibly worst nightmares) proved rather difficult to purchase, not least because the agent selling…
Long may we laugh at our absurd demagogues
In Reflections on the Revolution in France, Edmund Burke warned that ‘pure democracy’ was as dangerous as absolute monarchy. ‘Of…
Long may we laugh at our absurd demagogues
In Reflections on the Revolution in France, Edmund Burke warned that ‘pure democracy’ was as dangerous as absolute monarchy. ‘Of…
How to do better at darts – and life
I have always been intrigued by the scoring systems for different sports, and the degree to which they contribute to…
Wild life
Laikipia I sip my Tusker beer on the veranda, staring at the elephant. He’s not the elephant in the…
Bridge
Bridge is such an unforgiving game; you can’t afford to take your eye off the ball for a single moment.…
My drunken heckling of General Petraeus landed me in a spot of bother
New York Harvey Keitel, the actor, rang up to invite me to a Marine shindig where General Petraeus would be…
Why gender fluidity will never take off in France
On Monday morning I was in a blind panic. The deadline for posted manuscript entries to the Daily Mail First…
I am the Basil Fawlty of Airbnb
I am becoming the Basil Fawlty of Airbnb. Almost everything that tormented Basil has tormented me since I started taking…
A forgotten hospital that was the British Empire’s gift to our Russian allies
The Royal College of Nursing (founded in 1916 with 34 members, but now with 440,000) is busy celebrating its centenary;…
