Life
Dear Mary
Q. I have regularly stayed with a hospitable friend in London but now hesitate to invite myself. She is seventy-something…
Beyond the Wall’s
I think Rowley’s is the perfect restaurant; but I am really a gay man. Rowley’s is at 113 Jermyn Street…
Dodgy
‘I hate Jammie Dodgers,’ said my husband staring disdainfully at a biscuit kindly tucked into his coffee saucer at an…
Beyond the Wall’s
I think Rowley’s is the perfect restaurant; but I am really a gay man. Rowley’s is at 113 Jermyn Street…
Little teams mean a lot
Graeme Swann arrived late for the last cricket World Cup. His wife had given birth before the tournament and he…
The Bradstock mystery
Some mysteries will never be solved, like why planes and boats disappear in the Bermuda Triangle, cats always land on…
High life
Gstaad Once upon a time clergymen saw mountain peaks as natural steeples leading them ever closer to God. Doctors considered…
Low life
My grandson and I had a lovely hour-long swim at the leisure centre. We had the learner pool to ourselves…
Real life
‘Hello, Vodafone customer s…, can I h…you?’ This is typical, I thought. I’m ringing to complain about them charging me…
Long life
I was listening to the radio the other morning to hear people complaining about the huge cuts in the number…
Wild life
Juba I discovered a 1954 Morris Minor parked outside the Catholic mission station in Mopoi, South Sudan. The car had…
Bridge
Before returning to Australia about a decade ago, Michael Courtney spent several years playing high-stake rubber bridge in London. Those…
Tradewise
The Tradewise Masters in Gibraltar has been won by the American grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura, with the British co-champion David Howell…
No. 349
White to play. This position is a variation from Bellin-Georgiadis, Gibraltar 2015. White has given up his queen. How does…
Hair brained
In Competition No. 2884 you were invited to submit a poem in praise or dispraise of beards. The beard has…
2198: Tuck in
Each of sixteen clues contains one misprinted letter in the definition part. Corrections of misprints spell the name (three words)…
To 2195: In question
Material from superfluous words in clues gives ‘fingers on buzzers’ (describing 2/20 and 8/33), ‘your starter for ten’ (indicating 31,…
The myth of the ‘London effect’
I suppose we should be thankful that Nicola Sturgeon has acknowledged there’s a problem with Scotland’s public education system, even…
Battle for Britain
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From Umbrella Man to the Coughing Major
Are you sitting comfortably and wearing your tinfoil hat? If so, open YouTube and watch a full-screen version of the…
Your problems solved
Q. I have a friend with multiple sclerosis. She lives alone in the countryside. There is no bus service and,…
Wits on parade
We were discussing wit. I uttered a self-evident truth which proved gratifyingly controversial. Of all the people I encounter, the…
Likely
What, asks Christian Major of Bromley, Kent, do I think of ‘this new, I assume American, fad for using the…
Wits on parade
We were discussing wit. I uttered a self-evident truth which proved gratifyingly controversial. Of all the people I encounter, the…
From Umbrella Man to the Coughing Major
Are you sitting comfortably and wearing your tinfoil hat? If so, open YouTube and watch a full-screen version of the…
