This is going to hurt
Some things are done well in the Globe’s new Julius Caesar. The assassination is a thrilling spectacle. Ketchup pouches concealed…
Sea fever
You’ve got to hand it to Dame Ethel Smyth. Working in an era when to be a British composer implied…
Solution to 2555: 6 x 2 Mixtures
The paired unclued lights (2/25, 4/16, 5/28, 10/20, 13/17 and 15D/41) are anagrams of one another. First prize Trish Baldin,…
Letters
Russian misrule Sir: Your editorial (‘Sanction Schroder’, 21 May) laments that western sanctions may be harming ordinary Russians, given that…
Will the world forsake him?
Cracks are beginning to appear in T.S. Eliot’s once unassailable reputation, says Philip Hensher
Sex Pistol’s Notebook
‘Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in,’ groans a weary Al Pacino in The Godfather…
A rising star
Ding Liren took first place at last month’s Chessable Masters, the fourth event in the 2022 Meltwater Champions Tour. But…
Basketball talk
On the cover of The Sidekick, just below a broken basketball hoop, a quote from Jonathan Lethem suggests Benjamin Markovits…
For meta or worse
Bergman Island sounds, on first acquaintance, like a theme-park attraction. Roll up, roll up! Let us speed you through the…
Real life
If you want to understand Surrey, look at the house names. Keepers’ Copse, Meadow View, Weavers, Highfields… What do all…
High life
New York Prince Pavlos, heir to the Greek throne, turned 55 recently and I threw a small dinner for him.…
Bridge
In honour of Her Majesty the Queen’s awe-inspiring Platinum Jubilee, I have not one but two hands, illustrating the power…
Wild life
On the BOAC VC10 flights to Nairobi, the pilots would invite children like me up to sit in the cockpit…
Married to the Blond Beast
There have been many biographies of Reinhard Heydrich, the cold, cynical head of the SS in the Third Reich, but…
Prophesying doom
In the wake of catastrophe, however random or unpredictable, one of the first things people can be relied upon to…
Too close to home
Julie Myerson has, somewhat confusingly, written a novel called Nonfiction. The confusion of course is the point, because this is…
The keys to success
Every Good Boy Does Fine – a banal phrase that also just happens to be the key to limitless wonder.…
Be careful what you wish for
The problem for feminism is men. Not, specifically, in the sense that men are the source of women’s problems, although…
Puzzle No. 705
White to play. Giri-Praggnanandhaa, Chessable Masters 2022. A game from the preliminary stages. What did Giri play to induce resignation?…
A proud, independent spirit
‘Deplorable,’ wrote the historian Denis Sinor in 1958 about the state of Hungarian historiography in English. ‘Not only are the…
Rob Burrow is in a league of his own
What a privilege the other night to see Rob Burrow, the Rugby League legend, win Autobiography of the Year at…
Going platinum
In Competition No. 3251, you were invited to submit a poem to mark the Queen’s platinum jubilee in the style…
