Life
Dear Mary
Q. Over New Year I stayed with a man who combines being a generous and exciting host with a punctilious…
Spirits of Bruegel
The ostensible subject matter is misleading, as is any conflation with his lesser relatives’ wassailing peasants and roistering village squares.…
Mistakes
I enjoy Poetry Please, but was shouting mildly at the wireless the other day when a northern woman poet was…
Spirits of Bruegel
The ostensible subject matter is misleading, as is any conflation with his lesser relatives’ wassailing peasants and roistering village squares.…
Wild life
Laikipia ‘I am old and cannot work again,’ said Celestino. ‘But you are 46 and we have many years to…
A mystery in the middle lane
I am convinced that when I took my driving test in 1983 I was asked by the examiner, ‘What lane…
High life
Gstaad A heavy snowfall diverted 40-odd private jets from landing in Saanen airport, thus the one per cent of the…
Low life
My first ride in a stretch Hummer. I haven’t lived, I now realise. The prodigious, ridiculous thing, tricked out in…
Real life
Seeing a poodle on the London Underground wearing a red vest with the words ‘Diabetes Medical Dog’ has given me…
Long life
Here in the valley of the River Tove in south Northamptonshire my chickens are laying copiously, my ducks are quacking…
Women’s ways
Liverpool manager Bill Shankly was once challenged with the story that for their wedding anniversary treat he had taken his…
Bridge
January ended for me with the annual Icelandic Bridge Festival in Reykjavik. There may be a better tournament but I…
Lions’ den
Daniel Johnson, the distinguished editor of Standpoint magazine, can be bracketed with Tim Congdon and Dominic Lawson, as having had…
No. 300
White to play. This is from Johnson-Finch, Marlow 1974. White is building up a strong attack on the kingside and…
Dear diary
In Competition 2833 you were invited to submit an extract from the adolescent diary of a well-known public figure, living…
2148: Eighth of February
Unclued lights (including two of two words and an accent to be ignored) can be expressed in such a way…
to 2145: Two in a row
Each pair consists of two in a ‘row’ in a variety of meanings. PURL (14) & PLAIN (25) (line of…
How to deal with the Blob
Michael Gove has been under fire this week for ‘sacking’ Sally Morgan as chair of Ofsted. You’d think he’d be…
Battle for Britain
Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment below.
Death of a team
Englishmen used to be deported to Australia as a punishment. Now they get sent back to England as an act…
Dear Mary
Q. I gave a copy of Dan Russel the Fox by Somerville and Ross to a couple I know to be…
London for aliens
Lanes of London serves street food to people who hate streets; that is, it exists to soothe the still-curious mouths…
Lumpen
A publisher, Kevin Mayhew, has written to The Tablet, which is not a computer journal but a weekly magazine of…
London for aliens
Lanes of London serves street food to people who hate streets; that is, it exists to soothe the still-curious mouths…
Death of a team
Englishmen used to be deported to Australia as a punishment. Now they get sent back to England as an act…
