Life
Magic touch
In Competition No. 2868 you were invited to take something mundane and filter it through the lens of magic realism.…
2183: Group theory
Each of 31 clues comprises a definition and a hidden consecutive jumble of the answer including one extra letter; the…
To 2180: Superfluous
FURBELOWS — given by initial letters of superfluous words in clues — can be read as FUR BELOW S, indicating…
You’ll regret not having a Human Rights Act when Labour get back in
I’ve been thinking about the Conservative party’s proposal for a Bill of Rights and am finding it difficult to make…
Battle for Britain
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Why everywhere should be more like Essex
Apart from the Wye Valley, where I grew up, there are only two places in Britain I’d consider living: Kent…
Dear Mary: Can I run out on an apprenticeship for my dream interview?
Q. I have been trying to get an apprenticeship in fashion for over a year without success. I just had…
Proof that the Japanese know how to make great Bordeaux
Château Lagrange, a St Julien third growth, has the largest acreage of any Bordeaux classed growth. For much of the…
The fascinating history of dullness
At least I’ve got my husband’s Christmas present sorted out: the Dull Men of Great Britain calendar. It is no…
In praise of Japanese Bordeaux
Château Lagrange, a St Julien third growth, has the largest acreage of any Bordeaux classed growth. For much of the…
Everywhere should be more like Essex
Apart from the Wye Valley, where I grew up, there are only two places in Britain I’d consider living: Kent…
I felt so awful I almost prayed that we would crash
This is about life up high. Two weeks ago The Spectator had that rapscallion and mischief-maker Peter McKay writing about…
Chatting up Katherine Mansfield
I like the New Zealand writer Katherine Mansfield, who according to Virginia Woolf smelt like a civet cat and had…
Three years on and I thought I would soon be free of the Slobs
A letter arrives from the lawyers handling my defence in the phantom whiplash injury claim. It is now coming up…
Evan Davies is SO not Jeremy Paxman (thank God)
It’s unusual for somebody promoting his own television programme to tell you not to watch it, but that’s what Evan…
These are the ones to watch in the Prix de l’Abbaye and the Derby
Rightly, the authorities are doing all they can to find and discipline the disgruntled racegoer who threw a beer can…
Bridge
I don’t know about the only gay in the village but I am starting to feel like the last woman…
Highland fling
Recently Professor Jackie Eales gave a lecture in Canterbury on ‘Queenship in the Age of the Enraged Chess Queen’. (The…
No. 334
White to play. This position is from Keene-Nunn, Surrey Junior Championship 1963. This game started with the Scotch Game opening.…
And another thing
In Competition No. 2867 you were invited to add a final stanza to a well-known poem. Nicholas Stone imagined how…
2182: Tops
The unclued lights are of a kind, verifiable in Brewer. Across 1 Poet has overdose first (5)…
To 2179: Cos
The unclued lights are abbreviations of seven English and one Welsh county, which themselves are inflected headwords in Chambers. (Consequently,…
Nigel Farage’s class war
I initially thought Nigel Farage had made a mistake in unveiling Mark Reckless on the final day of his party…
Battle for Britain
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Please don't let the Ryder Cup go the way of football
Well, that was a lot of fuss wasn’t it? The Ryder Cup is a strange old creation, only fractionally less…
