Life
Battle for Britain
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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…
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…
High life
OK sports fans, what do Dame Vivien Duffield and Evelyn Waugh have in common? The answer is absolutely nothing, so…
Long life
This is an uplifting story of survival with which to usher in the New Year. At Stoke Park, my home…
Long life
This is an uplifting story of survival with which to usher in the New Year. At Stoke Park, my home…
Low life
The new year was two hours young. My boy and I were side by side on a row of three…
Low life
The new year was two hours young. My boy and I were side by side on a row of three…
Chattering classes
When the much missed Frank Johnson (1943–2006), once editor of The Spectator, wrote in 1980 that ‘the peculiar need for…
Real life
‘Start at the back and try to pass as many horses as you can,’ said the trainer, as we stepped…
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…
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…
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…
North-south divide
The well-bred Sea Pigeon, who had finished seventh in the Derby when trained at Beckhampton by Jeremy Tree, was later…
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…
High life
This is going to be one hell of a year, hell being the operative word. It will be the year…
Low life
For me, last year started with an appalling whitey outside a pub after swallowing a second ecstasy tablet because I…
Real life
‘Sadly, the world is filled with apathy,’ said my friend, as we looked at our sad little list of conscripts…
Long life
The Egyptian driver of a London minicab said almost nothing during our journey but dropped me off at my destination…
Bridge
This might be the most beautiful hand I’ve ever seen. I came across it while reading one of the old…
Banking on chess
As the new year begins, I pay a final tribute to the city financier Jim Slater, who did so much to…
