Life
Cost of living
Labour’s appeal to the cost of living has a rather old-fashioned feel to it: as if the whole nation still…
Simple pleasures in Soho
Occasionally a critic must review a restaurant in which they are prepared to spend their own money. So here is…
Why the crusade against Alastair Cook?
A jaw-dropping moment on the front page of Her Majesty’s Daily Telegraph the other day: ‘How to fix England’, read…
Fit as a filly
Fretful horses who waste their energies — and often their racing potential — ceaselessly pacing their stable dormitories are known…
High life
To Fort Belvedere for a ball that most likely will discourage any more balls because of its brilliance and perfection.…
Low life
‘I’m wasted,’ said Trev, meaning not that his life is futile, but that his mind was overwhelmed by illegal drugs.…
Real life
If we had to fight a war on the home front I’m fairly sure we would be stuffed. I base…
Long life
Tony Blair and Bill Clinton must be very happy about how they have fared since leaving political office, for each…
Bridge
Our Golden Oldies have brought home the Gold! Many congratulations to the England players who have won the Seniors Teams…
Tiger tiger
Petrosian Move by Move is a new book published by Everyman Chess written by the Swedish international master Thomas Engqvist.…
No. 321
White to play. This position is from Petrosian–Rossetto, Portoroz 1958. What is White’s most efficient continuation? Answers to me at…
Fresh food
In Competition No. 2854 you were invited to invent a title for a new cookery book, with a fresh angle,…
2169: Land
Six items of one kind, reading clockwise, form the perimeter, whilst four unclued lights are of another kind. All ten…
To 2166: Somewhere X
Somewhere next to GUYANA (34) and BRAZIL (12), DUTCH (33) is SPOKEN (25), the highest mountain is JULIANA TOP (1D),…
Accept it, embrace it: Conservatives aren’t cool
The Times headline on Tuesday was rather cruel: ‘Stars turn down No. 10 invitation.’ This was a reference to the…
Battle for Britain
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Adam Smith vs the measurebators
Gandhi would test his resolve by sleeping between two naked virgins, an avenue not really open to me, as my…
Dear Mary
Q. My 16-year-old son, who has recently had his first experiences of Clubland, has observed to me, his mother, that…
An elegy in Burgundy
It was a sort of wake. An old friend’s father had died, and some of us were helping him and…
Diffuse
It’s funny how people hardly know what they are saying. I read recently of diplomats going to Riyadh ‘to diffuse…
An elegy in Burgundy
It was a sort of wake. An old friend’s father had died, and some of us were helping him and…
Adam Smith vs the measurebators
Gandhi would test his resolve by sleeping between two naked virgins, an avenue not really open to me, as my…
High life
When I hear the words Sykes-Picot I more often than not feel like punching an Englishman or a Frog —…
Low life
On Saturday night I went to Charlie’s 69th birthday party. What a gaff he’s got. The rather snooty description of…
Real life
The vet arrived at the stable yard wearing his customary grin. He is the happiest man I know. Of course…
