Life
Yawn
In Competition No. 2891 you were invited to think of the most boring lecture topic possible and submit an extract…
Your problems solved
Q. Someone I was at university with but hadn’t seen much of over the ten years since invited me to…
A cemetery with cocktails
La Coupole, Montparnasse, is the grandest and most famous of the old pre-war Parisian brasseries; that is, if you have…
High life
End of season is always bittersweet, the melting snows a bit like autumn leaves. But the days are longer and…
They
I’ve been having a lovely time splashing about in the new Fowler. It has been revised by Jeremy Butterfield, an…
Can McIlroy become the magnificent seventh?
The grand slam in golf is a feat almost impossible to imagine now. It meant winning all four golfing majors…
Lefty myths about inequality
As a Tory, I’ve been thinking a lot about inequality recently. Has it really increased in the past five years?…
Lefty myths about inequality
As a Tory, I’ve been thinking a lot about inequality recently. Has it really increased in the past five years?…
The price of success
After listening to a violinist’s justification of his playing, Dr Samuel Johnson responded tartly: ‘Difficult do you call it, Sir?…
Make no mistake: the Top Gear brouhaha is cultural warfare
It’s a famous quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald, one that Elton John should ponder (when he’s not out shopping, that…
Football in front, infibulation behind
I’m watching Manchester City being taken to the cleaners by Barcelona on the telly, while at the table behind me…
I gave the blasted Paltrow method a go and allowed a bit of conscious uncoupling to creep in
The builder boyfriend has a new girlfriend. I suppose he was bound to move on eventually. I just never thought…
Be different, be original: that’s what makes a popular politician
I sometimes try to imagine what it would be like being a political leader. I find this difficult because I…
The warrior arched his body, readying to sling his spear at my chest
Laikipia With a shriek, the warrior arched his body, readying to sling his spear at my chest. The tear-dropped javelin…
Bridge
Janet de Botton and I decided to spice things up a bit at the Young Chelsea heat of the nationwide…
Caro can
The Caro-Kann Defence, 1 e4 c6, has always appealed to me. It has the advantage of staking a claim in…
No. 355
Black to play. This position is a variation from Ganguly-Vitiugov, Gibraltar 2014. The game started as a Caro-Kann and is…
End paper
In Competition No. 2890 you were invited to imagine that one of the major newspapers has ceased publication and provide…
2204: Security
In nine clues, cryptic indications omit reference to parts of answers; these parts must be highlighted, to reveal a definition…
2201: Facility
The words FAST FORWARD (given by letters added to definitions in clues) define 42 and 11, both indicating the way…
How (and why) we lie to ourselves about opinion polls
A strange ritual takes place on Twitter most evenings at around 10.30 p.m. Hundreds of political anoraks start tweeting the…
Battle for Britain
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A lesson in decision-making from the world’s worst road sign
Driving from Dover on the M20 a year ago I missed the turning for the M25. A month later I…
Dear Mary
Q. When sending wedding invitations, does one put the full titles on the card, or can one just put, for…
Wines to toast a warrior saint
Towards the chimes at midnight, a few of us left a — respectable — establishment near Leicester Square. Eight or…
