One day in Dublin
Emilie Pine writes about the big things and the little things: friendship, love, fertility, grief; waking, showering, catching the bus.…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. As a publisher, I have been fortunate to discover an unpublished writer who is the author of some truly…
Surreal love triangle
One could compile a fat anthology of tributes to Marcel Duchamp’s charm – especially what one friend called the artist’s…
Boy wonder
During his brief stage career Master Betty, or the Young Roscius, was no stranger to superlatives: genius, unparalleled, superior, Albion’s…
Rough justice
What is a just war? Those who, from St Augustine onwards, have debated the question usually begin with Cicero, the…
Let’s get physical
In Competition No. 3246, you were invited to submit a poem in the style of the poet of your choice…
Chess puzzle No. 700
White to play and draw. Composed by Jan Timman, 2011. 1 h8=Q Rxd5 wins for Black, so how does White…
America has betrayed its young
Two articles last weekend made me feel sorry for American young people. We in the anti-woke brigade can be awfully…
Solution to 2550: Shorties
The unclued lights and those clued without thematic definition (7, 11, 17, 30, 31, 32, 36 and 41) are SHORTened…
Barometer
Stone me Boris Johnson threatened to unleash the ‘terrors of the Earth’ on an unidentified Tory MP who claimed that…
Ordination
In the dying seconds of an online blitz game, I promoted a pawn and instantly regretted it. There was nothing…
Letters
In check Sir: Jade McGlynn (‘Conflict of opinion’, 23 April) has a point that there are many reasons for popular…
Bridge
Recently, a friend was browsing through the bridge books on my shelves, when suddenly she burst out laughing. ‘Here’s a…
Portrait of the week
Home Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, said Britain assessed that 15,000 Russians had been killed in the war against Ukraine…
Real life
After rushing our little spaniel to the veterinary hospital on the usual bank holiday emergency basis upon which all animals…
Diary
I have just got back from Cannes, where I was the president of a jury, judging TV dramas. I’ve never…
More fevered speculation
Royal gossip is largely invented, says Philip Hensher – but Tina Brown repeats it regardless
Have I cured my arachnophobia?
I’ve been an arachnophobe my whole life. I can’t remember a time when videos of spiders, or even photos or…
Thugs or no thugs…? Albo seeks to close ABCC
Amidst Anthony Albanese’s confusing election promises, there’s one commitment that stands out. An Albanese Labor government will close down the Australian Building and…
