Life
On course for thrills
This year you don’t want to be a jockey’s valet. Never have their washing machines spun so vigorously. From every…
High life
Call me sentimental, but I’ve never seen a better opening ceremony than the Sochi one, evoking Russia’s great past in…
Low life
Every time I hear that song ‘Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll’ played on the radio, I think, Lord,…
Real life
‘Please, I beg of you, take me to see André,’ was my mother’s heartfelt plea. And so it was that…
Long life
Who would ever have thought it, but I have become quite fond of Milton Keynes. Although I live slightly closer…
Wild life
Laikipia ‘I am old and cannot work again,’ said Celestino. ‘But you are 46 and we have many years to…
Bridge
A couple of Sundays ago, in London, Zia Mahmood and Demetri Marchessini held the first ever ‘Goulash Individual’ tournament. ‘Goulash’…
Georgics
George Osborne is a supporter of chess. During the award ceremony at 11 Downing St for last year’s London Candidates’…
no. 301
White to play. This position is from Carlsen-Caruana, Zurich 2014. White’s pin against the black rook and the passed pawn…
Hard-boiled Blyton
In Competition 2834 you were invited to submit an extract from a classic of children’s literature rewritten in the style…
2149: Super!
Each of the unclued lights (one of two words and one of three) can be preceded by the same word…
Solution to 2146: 4 ÷ 4 = 8
One 4-letter word is to be placed in the middle of another to yield an 8-letter solution: 6 ÷ 19…
I’m failing as a parent, and that’s OK
Two new books have been published recently on the thorny issue of social mobility, one optimistic, suggesting various things parents…
Battle for Britain
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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…
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…
