Life
Dear Mary
Q. Recently a cousin and I gave a small drinks party in the USA. She had invited a very elegant…
Multi-story dining
The Fable is three floors high and two days old, a monster newly hatched on the Holborn Viaduct; deep below…
England
Who, my husband asked, expects every man will do his duty? He was responding to the interesting and important question…
Multi-story dining
The Fable is three floors high and two days old, a monster newly hatched on the Holborn Viaduct; deep below…
Flying boards and killer moustaches
You can trust the BBC to behave like a leaf blown by any breeze, but even that spineless leviathan (if…
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…
