Diary
‘Aren’t you meant to be in quarantine?’ the man in the cloakroom queue asks. I sense that his enquiry is…
Italian Notebook
During times of contagion, you begin to understand why fascist salutes were once so popular. The foot-tap is replacing the…
Spooky delights
One of my perpetual gnawing terrors is that I’ll recommend a series that looks initially promising but turns out to…
Civil unrest
Thirteen years ago, when John Reid became Home Secretary, he declared the ministry he presided over ‘not fit for purpose’.…
No stone unturned
Andrew Ziminski is the man who rebuilt the West Country. For 30 years, this skilled stonemason has renovated some of…
2447: No small matter
One clued light can be associated with ten unclued ones. Ignore accents. One solution is an IVR. Across 4 Thrills…
No more Spanish eggshells
It is time to begin with an apology, and hope. In the course of these columns, I have already admitted…
My night in A&E
I wish I shared the Prime Minister’s confidence about the ability of the NHS to cope with coronavirus. ‘I have…
Galway
I was still digesting my delicious breakfast (kippers, poached eggs and soda bread — all local) when the sad news…
Tales out of school
‘James Scudamore is now a force in the English novel,’ says Hilary Mantel on the cover of English Monsters, which,…
Portrait of the week
Home After a Cobra emergency meeting about the coronavirus Covid-19, when the number of cases in the United Kingdom had…
Letters
We need career detectives Sir: Your lead article (Trial and error, 29 February) rightly condemns Tom Watson for pressurising police…
High Life
Gstaad I shoulda been a weatherman: no sooner had I announced snow to be a Gstaad rarity than it…
Inside stories
Nicolaes Maes (1634–93) relished the simple moments of daily life during the Dutch Golden Age. A woman peeling parsnips over…
The Turf
Every time the Cheltenham Festival looms, I recall a remarkable experience. It was already 25 years since Dawn Run’s recovery…
Dear Mary
Q. I am arranging the seating plan for my daughter’s wedding and have a problem with one of her guests…
Real Life
One of the many technological things I don’t understand is, how come I’m paying to watch television? I know why…
To the friend who dropped me
I’ve put off sending a private email that’s been ready to go for weeks. Then last Sunday, I read Julie…
Low Life
On a hard chair next to the waiting-room door, I sat for an hour defusing thoughts of my own demise,…
Peasants’ revolt
The German word for pawn, ‘bauer’, can also be translated as peasant, or farmer. There are many spectacular games in…
Oracles, perverts and the Dirtbag Left
For 500 years the State Oracle of Tibet has worked as a kind of angry immortal advisor to the Dalai…
Mathematical mysteries
The reality (or lack thereof) of numbers is the kind of problem some philosophers consider overwhelmingly important, but it’s of…
