Life
All change at the top
In sport, as in life, you just don’t know where you stand any more. Look at the Premier League: no…
Wild life
As I write this, my hands are seared and bruised from holding a hot iron after branding our cattle. We…
High life
I suppose the secret of death is to choose not to expire the same day as famous people. I read…
Low life
In the Spar shop I overheard someone talking anxiously to the woman on the till about an approaching ‘hurricane’. I…
Real life
Like the heroine in Stephen King’s The Tommyknockers, I stood in front of it with my mouth open in awe.…
Long life
I was in Nottingham last Sunday to address university students about journalism. The occasion was a one-day ‘media conference’ organised…
The day of fallers
On a grey October morning, along a Berkshire lane leading up to the Ridgeway amid fields stuffed with pheasant, 30…
Bridge
Bridge is a great leveller: at some point, it makes fools of us all. As a result, it’s probably best…
Next generation
Magnus Carlsen’s world title challenge to Vishy Anand commences on Saturday 9 November and continues to the end of this month.…
No. 291
White to play. This position is from Karpov v. Korchnoi, Merano 1981. White’s next destroyed the black position. What did…
Shakespeare does Dallas
In Competition 2822 you were invited to submit an extract from a scene from a contemporary soap opera (television or…
2138: Hundred centimes
The unclued lights, across and down respectively, are of a kind, all verifiable in Chambers. Across 4 Single…
To 2135: Strange
The unclued lights are CONDUCTORS (SARGENT is an anagram of the title STRANGE). First prize Roderick Rhodes, Goldsborough, North…
Fighting dirty
Why is local politics so much dirtier than national politics? Is it because the players are fighting over relatively trivial…
Dave
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How to reduce journey times without HS2
I am still waiting for someone to refute my argument that it would be possible to reduce the journey time…
Dear Mary
Q. One of our daughter’s godmothers has given very generous presents but never with any regularity. She was unable to…
House sherry
The Speaker was in trouble. I do not refer to Michael Martin or John Bercow, the two worst Speakers in…
Collagen
I saw an advertisement for Active Gold Collagen, and I realised I didn’t know what collagen means. My husband just…
House sherry
The Speaker was in trouble. I do not refer to Michael Martin or John Bercow, the two worst Speakers in…
The day of fallers
On a grey October morning, along a Berkshire lane leading up to the Ridgeway amid fields stuffed with pheasant, 30…
How to reduce journey times without HS2
I am still waiting for someone to refute my argument that it would be possible to reduce the journey time…
High life
New York Hot money from China, India, Russia and Singapore is pouring into London; hotter money from the same countries…
Low life
We’d being trying to meet for lunch for weeks, but always something had got in the way and either she…
Real life
Blind panic grips me at the thought that all over Britain there are people sitting in cosy home offices operating…
