Life
Low life
Roy was a superb mechanic, a methodical master of his trade. For an hour I respectfully watched him work to…
Low life
Roy was a superb mechanic, a methodical master of his trade. For an hour I respectfully watched him work to…
Peak
Near Victoria Station in London they began to build a tower-block advertised as ‘The Peak’. I expected it to resemble…
Real life
My attempt to have a small cyst removed from the spaniel was always going to be fraught with difficulty. My…
Is this a golden age of protest?
Are we living in a golden age of protest? A bunch of aggrieved citizens only has to raise a murmur…
Is this a golden age of protest?
Are we living in a golden age of protest? A bunch of aggrieved citizens only has to raise a murmur…
The power of painless payment
I am one of those annoying, mildly claustrophobic people who sit at the end of a row in cinemas. There…
Bridge
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster, and treat those two impostors just the same… Well, Kipling obviously never…
High life
The death of David Bowie — how is it that Stephen Glover always gets it right about our over-reaction and…
Low life
Putting old or contaminated petrol in a car needn’t be catastrophic, but in the Golf’s case it was. With 37,000…
Real life
When in India, I always appal my highly educated tour guides. They despair of me, as they drag me round…
Long life
Here I go again. I have stopped smoking. Until recently I had been smoking about 40 cigarettes a day, but…
Small wonder
Cheltenham, Ascot and Sandown Park are wonderful but without the little tracks racing would be lost. It was perishing cold…
Bridge
The New Year got off to a great start with TGR’s annual auction pairs, the best run tournament I have…
Pauline conversion
Paul Keres, the Estonian grandmaster and many times world championship contender, was born a hundred years ago this month. His…
No. 392
White to play. This position is from Keres-Spassky, Gothenburg 1955. Can you spot White’s crushing blow? Answers to me at…
Going mental
In Competition No. 2931 you were invited to submit a psychiatric report on a well-known figure in literature. Shakespearean characters…
2244: Faithful
The unclued lights, one of two words, are of a kind, verifiable in Brewer. Across 1 After…
To 2241: Customary
The unclued lights (1A, 1D, 6A/33, 13, 18, 32 and 38/24) are seven of the ‘Twelve Curious CUSTOMS Worth Reviving’,…
The Islamist Nazis and Corbyn’s wilful blindness
Many people watching Jeremy Corbyn’s interview on Marr last Sunday will have been shocked by his remarks about the need…
Battle for Britain
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Three sides to our success
In the middle of Oxford is a socking great cinema: once the Ritz, it’s now an Odeon multiplex. Back in…
Dear Mary
Q. We have two granddaughters working hard and happily at university. It is our pleasure to give them some cash…
Brass tacks
The last time I reviewed a restaurant in Selfridges, a PR man rang up to ask what he could do…
Box set
There is no chance whatsoever of box set being replaced by the more correct form boxed set. So stop seething…
