Life
Low life
I was at home in Devon for the month of December. My sister was also there and her tyrannical, wildly…
Waybread
‘Did you say “fabric”?’ asked my husband when I was telling him about words that have just been added to…
Real life
All disputes are now a clash of rights in which both sides compete to see who has the greatest claim…
Tell the truth about benefit claimants and the left shuts you down
Next month sees the release of Trumbo, a biopic about Dalton Trumbo, the screenwriter who was blacklisted by the Hollywood…
Tell the truth about benefit claimants and the left shuts you down
Next month sees the release of Trumbo, a biopic about Dalton Trumbo, the screenwriter who was blacklisted by the Hollywood…
Q: What is a good school? A: One that other people like
A few months ago I received a call from someone running a small private school near New York. They believed…
Wild life
On New Year’s Day I took the family out for an evening walk on the ranch. Along the verges, lush…
Bridge
Forgive me for the outdated, clichéd expression but …GIRL POWER! The surprise winners of last weekend’s TGRs auction pairs were…
High life
OK sports fans, what do Dame Vivien Duffield and Evelyn Waugh have in common? The answer is absolutely nothing, so…
Low life
The new year was two hours young. My boy and I were side by side on a row of three…
Real life
‘Start at the back and try to pass as many horses as you can,’ said the trainer, as we stepped…
Long life
This is an uplifting story of survival with which to usher in the New Year. At Stoke Park, my home…
North-south divide
The well-bred Sea Pigeon, who had finished seventh in the Derby when trained at Beckhampton by Jeremy Tree, was later…
Bridge
Call me nuts but on 29 December I left lovely, sunny, delicious France for the fairly unlovely Royal National Hotel…
Winter’s tail
The London Classic, the end of the million-dollar Grand Tour, was something of a damp squib. A surfeit of draws…
Puzzle no. 390
Black to play. This is a variation from Carlsen-Grischuk, London Classic 2015. Carlsen won but this week’s puzzle shows how…
Nostradamus
In Competition No. 2929 you were invited to submit an acrostic poem containing some predictions for the next decade, in…
2242: Defeated
Clues in italics are cryptic indications of partial answers. In each case, the indicated part must be 5 39 (five…
To 2240: Various sources
The thematic term (formed by letters cut from definitions, 17, and letters added to definitions) is SCISSORS-AND-PASTE. Unclued lights are…
The left’s war on science
How much longer can the liberal left survive in the face of growing scientific evidence that many of its core…
Battle for Britain
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Add Ben Stokes to the world’s greatest batsmen
On Sunday morning a friend texted: ‘You watching the big bash, or the domestic stuff down in Australia?’ On one…
Your problems solved
Q. Although I have met most of the fellow occupants of my building at residents’ meetings, we don’t socialise. However…
That sinking feeling
The Feng Shang Princess is a floating Chinese restaurant on the Regent’s Canal in north London, which flows from Little…
Chattering classes
When the much missed Frank Johnson (1943–2006), once editor of The Spectator, wrote in 1980 that ‘the peculiar need for…
