Euro notes
Boris & the nightmare of Lady MacStalin After Alex Salmond, Scotland’s former first minister, claimed his successor Nicola Sturgeon had…
Britney Spears
The arts world in general —and with it theatre in particular— is opening up. Not only is the Botticelli to…
Johannes Fritzsch
It is hard to imagine a city with a richer cultural history than Dresden or a better place for a…
Kiwi Life
Although it probably won’t, the recent kerfuffle over the brilliant works of Dr Seuss and other creators of children’s books…
Language
Is it just me, or have others noticed that heterosexual couples have lost access to the words ‘husband’ and ‘wife’?…
Portrait of the week
Home The world was agog, some in tears, some in synchronised toe-curling, as the Duchess of Sussex and her husband…
The real rogue traders
When we think of those lurching moments last spring when it became clear that much of the world, not just…
Bands on the run
Twitter was awash with mockery last week, after Adam Levine, the singer of the American group Maroon 5, was interviewed…
Puzzle no. 644
White to play and mate in two moves. Composed by Philip Hamilton Williams, Birmingham Post, 1890. Answers should be emailed…
Bright and beautiful
Edward St Aubyn’s ‘Patrick Melrose’ novels were loosely autobiographical renderings of the author’s harrowing, rarefied, drug-sozzled existence. Despite their subject…
Initial impressions
The Finborough’s new show is a love story with the male partner absent. Two women, one Irish and one American,…
The West has lost its moral high ground
International travellers running the gauntlet of English airports must already test negative for Covid before the flight, and on return…
We’ll always have Paris
Some friends claim to be making marks on the wall to count the days until liberation. Ah, the forgotten delights…
Dear Mary
Q. I hesitate to bring you this problem, but I suspect it is not that uncommon. Early in our very…
Cross purposes
I was once asked by a previous editor of the Timeshow to increase sales of the paper. I was slightly…
Formica
If I ever again accompany my husband to a medical conference in Spain, and want to tell my hosts that…
Egrets
There’s an unwritten rule in newspaper journalism that any story about egrets must have one of two headlines. Either ‘no…
