Magpie gifts
One day a baby bird falls from its nest into an oily scrapyard in Bermondsey, south London and seems unlikely…
What sort of family is this?
The line between obsession and addiction is as thin as rolling paper. Neither are simple and both stem from absence,…
Barometer
Information overload The government’s plan to put ‘Covid wardens’ on the streets to enforce the new rule against more than…
Letters
China’s covered Sir: If Charles Moore had contacted the BBC, rather than conducting a fruitless Google search, we would have…
When language gets polluted
Pursuing last week’s theme, this week’s column raises the question: if there is no such thing as ‘race’ — since…
Marshal law
Covid marshals have invaded theatreland. Arriving for a weekday matinee at the Bridge, I was greeted by stewards holding up…
Who dares wins
‘Art is dead,’ declared Mark Steyn recently. He was referring to the new rules — copied from the Baftas —…
The Pineapple Thief: Versions of the Truth
Grade: B– Of all the various subdivisions in that wheezing and crippled phenomenon that we call rock music, prog has…
Peake practice
Mervyn Peake’s unsettling illustrations reveal a gentle, kindly man with the soul of a pirate, says Daisy Dunn
One of the boys
This book made me almost weep with nostalgia, but heaven knows what today’s snowflakes will make of it. Fleet Street…
Look at the paint!
The hand is one of the first images to appear in art. There are handprints on the walls of caves…
The pros and cons of consensus
The British romance with Germany has always been an on-off affair. At the turn of the century, Kaiser Bill enjoyed…
Lost in translation
Listening to the tacky and incomprehensible audio-adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s graphic novel seriesSandman, I couldn’t stop thinking about the 19th-century…
What cinema is for
Cuties is the subject of a moral panic and a hashtag #CancelNetflix. It tells the story of Amy (Fathia Youssouf),…
Changing the rules
Nothing courts us so nimbly as technology. Perhaps the chess computers have already won you over — I am dazzled…
Puzzle no. 622
Black to play. Jones–McShane, London Chess Classic 2019. Last year I played two games of no-castling chess with Gawain Jones,…
Privates on parade
In Competition No. 3166 you were invited to supply a poem either celebrating or lamenting the cancellation of Philadelphia’s annual…
2475: Poem VI
Unclued lights are ten words taken from a poem quoted in ODQ. The poet’s name (two words) will appear diagonally…
Solution to 2472: All-inclusive
The perimeter quotation is from Mahler. Remaining unclued lights were names of symphonies: 12A Mahler / Schubert; 26A Haydn; 39A…
The age of camp is over
Last week we broadcast my BBC radio Great Lives episode on Kenneth Williams. The effervescent comedian and presenter Tom Allen…
