Life
Dear Mary
Q. After a recent dinner I found myself on a two-seater sofa enjoying the restful company of a woman who…
Burgundian battles
There is only one answer to the question ‘Burgundy or claret?’ ‘Yes, but never in the same glass.’ Yet I…
Prolific
I read somewhere recently of a Soho artist who was a ‘prolific drinker’. The meaning is clear, but hasn’t the…
Burgundian battles
There is only one answer to the question ‘Burgundy or claret?’ ‘Yes, but never in the same glass.’ Yet I…
Reputations at stake
‘J’ai failli attendre’ — ‘I almost had to wait’ — allegedly said by Louis XIV when his carriage drew up just a…
Wild life
Hell’s Kitchen My ambition to open a fish and chip shop in Mogadishu has not happened yet, though I remain…
High life
Gstaad The very end of 2014 laid an egg, and an expensive one at that. I missed David Tang’s bash…
Low life
Over Christmas and New Year I was rotten with flu and didn’t go out once. I stayed soberly at home…
Real life
Every accident that happens to a horse is a freak accident. Rule number one. Once you grasp that as a…
Long life
For the past two and a half years my brother John has been living next door to me in the…
Conquering Emperor
Welsh Grand National day at Chepstow could not have had a better climax than the big race. After slogging three…
Bridge
The last tournament of the year is the hugely popular one-day Swiss Teams in the EBU’s Year End Congress in…
London Classic
The key feature of the London Classic, which finished shortly before Christmas, was the resurgence of Viswanathan Anand, the former…
No. 344
White to play. This is a position from Adams–Caruana, London Classic 2014. How did Adams convert to a winning endgame?…
Rehabilitation
In Competition No. 2879 you were invited to follow in the footsteps of Hilary Mantel and provide a scene that…
2193: Celebration II
Clockwise round the grid from 31 run the titles of four works (6,3,5,7,5.1,5,7,8,5) associated with a 21 and 25A born…
To 2191: Bunk
Ambrose Bierce defined history as an account, mostly false, of events, mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers, mostly…
Autism and the Turing Fallacy
When I first heard the story of Alan Turing in my late teens I made what must be quite a…
Battle for Britain
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Myths and legends
‘As a leader and a man, he is incomparable to anyone I have ever worked with.’ Obviously quite some guy,…
Dear Mary
Q. We enjoyed the Christmas University Challenge series featuring mature graduates, some of whom were more in the public eye than…
Sugar rush
The Cereal Killer Café is a temple to cereal on Brick Lane, east London. It serves only cereal — and also…
Parenting
‘Not still War and Peace!’ exclaimed my husband on 1 January during the all-day Tolstoy splurge on Radio 4. In reality…
Sugar rush
The Cereal Killer Café is a temple to cereal on Brick Lane, east London. It serves only cereal — and also…
Myths and legends
‘As a leader and a man, he is incomparable to anyone I have ever worked with.’ Obviously quite some guy,…
