The long Covid revenge
Boris Johnson’s predecessor was destroyed by her inability to meet deadlines. Theresa May extended the Brexit transition period so many…
On looking without seeing
By the side of the road from Sudbury in Derbyshire to Ashbourne, there is a lone eucalyptus tree. This is…
2511: Changing places
The 12 unclued lights (one of two words) are somehow paired and one solution in each pair is of a…
French toast
It is hard to decide which is more depressing, the extension of the lockdown or the public support for this…
Dear Mary
Q. Last night I went to dinner with people I had never met before. Because the host was a friend…
Beware foreign money on the hunt for fast bucks
The snatching of a 12 per cent stake in BT by French entrepreneur Patrick Drahi, last seen here when he…
The third way
In Competition No. 3203, you were invited to supply an extract from the newly discovered Shakespeare play Charles III. I…
Puzzle No. 658
Mammadzada — M. Muzychuk, May 2021. In this messy position, Black’s next move prompted instant resignation. What did she play?…
Gender critical
Seeing my husband in his armchair snoozing, as his unacknowledged habit is, head back, mouth open, stertorous and blotchy, it…
Macaques and defence
January normally brings cheerful photos from the Gibraltar Chess Festival, where visiting chess-players get an impromptu snap with the Barbary…
Letters
A new prescription Sir: It is maddening to see the British people being refused face-to-face GP appointments and subjected to…
Low life
A second week recovering in bed in this pleasant south-facing bedroom. If I sit up, my back resting against whitewashed…
Bitterns
Bitterns are booming, both literally and metaphorically. These handsome brown birds from the heron family make a noise quite unlike…
Bridge
Immense excitement in the relatively tiny world of bridge — the English Bridge Union has announced that the Premier League…
Real life
While we were looking forward to Freedom Day, the National Health Service was busy planning something extra special to coincide…
Air travel is in terminal danger
During the political car crash of 2019, I couldn’t imagine ever agreeing with Theresa May. Yet last week she exhibited…
High life
New York I haven’t felt such shirt-dripping, mind-clogging wet heat since Saigon back in 1971. The Bagel is a steam…
Diary
I’ve worked for some media thoroughbreds — including the Financial Times, ITN and CNN — so I know the sense…
Cancel culture, Roman-style
The mob is at work again in Oxford, protesting against the existence of Oriel’s statue of Cecil Rhodes. But this…
A breath of fresh airwaves
A couple of decades back the Radio Society asked me to moderate a debate for its summer festival. ‘Between who?’…
Barometer
On this day Would 19 July make a suitable ‘freedom day’ (assuming Covid restrictions are lifted even then)? There is…
