We get the picture
Philip Guston is hard to dislike. The most damning critique levied against the canonical mid-century American painter is that he…
Edinburgh Notebook
When I was in my twenties, exactly 50 Edinburgh Festivals ago, Frank Dunlop directed the first professional production of Joseph…
High life
Coronis I suppose there’s always a first time, and looking back it was bound to happen. I scrambled off a…
Low life
An isolated Provençal stone farmhouse from the outside; from the inside a comfortable English country house. Sunk into the garriguea…
Bridge
My husband is a writer (John Preston), whose recent books were better received than he had ever dared hope. When…
Letters
No competition Sir: Ross Clark’s compelling critique of the water companies comes to the wrong conclusion (‘Water isn’t working’, 13…
2569: Anadad
Round the grid from 1 runs a quotation (1,3,4.2,5,3,5,3,2,6) from a play followed by the dramatist’s name (two words). Two…
The first Olympiad
Everyone remembers their first Olympiad. As I boarded the flight to Chennai last month, it struck me that two full…
Puzzle No. 716
Black to play. A variation from McShane-Hamitevici, Chennai 2022. I avoided this position, but lost in a different way. White…
Initial embarrassment
In Competition No. 3262, you were invited to submit a poem on behalf of Rishi Sunak or Liz Truss in…
Solution to 2566: Somewhere XII
30 July is Independence Day in Vanuatu in MELANESIA (23D). Its capital city is PORT VILA (39/16), one of its…
Finger-wagging and flawed
‘Diversity is woven into the very soul of the story.’ If those words of praise from a rave review in…
Doctor doctor
In a new hour-long monologue, Burn, Alan Cumming examines the life and work of Robert Burns. The biographical material is…
Curiouser and curiouser
My Old School is a documentary exploring a true story that would have to be true as it’s too preposterous…
The turf
I don’t miss too many from the political world I once inhabited but I was saddened by the death of…
Real life
From the veranda of a small Irish farmhouse, I looked out over the sun-drenched West Cork peninsula. All I could…
Joyous freefall
The first part of the adventure was getting there. Out of the subway, past the tower blocks and under the…
A legend comes to town
‘Human beings are in trouble these days,’ says Herbie Hancock, chatting to us between songs. ‘And do you know who…
How far could he go?
I have never had much time for Aleister Crowley. Magic(k) is nonsense; the mystical societies he founded were simply pretexts…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. Some older American friends take me and my husband out to dinner once a year when they are over…
Barometer
Testing, testing When were A levels first sat? They can be traced back to the Oxford Local, an external examination…
Truss, Sunak and Cicero
As Miss Truss and Mr Sunak spray policies around on a range of topics which they hope will appeal to…
The new benefits trap
It has become received wisdom that Brexit has condemned Britain to chronic labour shortages. Many of the migrant workers who…
Bad guys have rights too
As a defender of free speech, I’m used to taking up the cudgels on behalf of unsavoury people. To quote…
