Low life
Last Tuesday a Mistral wind blowing across the Bay of Angels jerked the plane all over the shop as it…
Real life
Being told I am now both short-sighted and long-sighted feels like someone is playing a very bad joke on me.…
Wild life
Death and failure are more integral to farming than any other experience that I’ve witnessed in my life. Some things…
Bridge
The annual Icelandic bridge tournament, held in Reykjavik at the end of January, is one of the best on the…
Beasts of the board
The Dutch artist Theo Jansen has a unique speciality. His ‘Strandbeest’ (beach animals) are kinetic sculptures, which he likes to…
no. 591
White to play, Dubov–Artemiev, Wijk aan Zee 2020. White is pressing here, but Black seems to have everything covered. Which…
Just the job
In Competition No. 3135 you were invited to submit an application letter for a job at No. 10 from a fictional…
2444: Ones in the country
The unclued entries (three of two words, and two hyphened) share an origin Across 1 Put an end to…
to 2441: To and Fro
FRANCIS THOMPSON, born in PRESTON, wrote THE HOUND OF HEAVEN and a poem, AT LORD’S, remembering the run-stealers that flicker…
Even the Oscars parties have lost their shine
Reading about the Oscars this week, I couldn’t help thinking back to a time when they actually meant something. When…
Dear Mary
Q. I am having a drinks party to celebrate the publication of my latest book. I sent out invitations (to…
Eight lessons from the world of sport
What we have learned in the past few weeks: 1) Don’t play rugby in a howling gale, even though for…
Criminally good
The Yard is a defiantly themed restaurant in Hyatt’s new Great Scotland Yard Hotel, an Edwardian red-brick block which once…
At pace
In Arnold Bennett’s Tales of the Five Towns, a young dog called Ellis Carter takes a girl for a drive…
Fighting fires
The richest man in Rome at the time of Julius Caesar was Marcus Licinius Crassus. Crassus made his fortune through…
Will Morrison fight?
To ‘culturally appropriate’ General George S. Patton: No bastard ever won a war by refusing to fight the battle. Slowly,…
Entebbe: the sequel
Arab reaction to Trump’s plan strengthens Israel and further isolates the Palestinians
Simon Collins
‘A very merry Christmas,’ sang John Lennon in 1971, ‘and a Happy New Year; let’s hope it’s a good one,…
No Pay? No Way!
As a sort of protest, I am not going to the opening of No Pay? No Way! at the Sydney…
