Searching in vain for the ‘soul’ of modern Russia

3 August 2019 9:00 am

It would be hard to have better travel-writer credentials than Sara Wheeler. Here the author of The Magnetic North and…

Why haven’t we heard of the extraordinary Finnish artist Helene Schjerfbeck?

3 August 2019 9:00 am

Last year I found myself giving a lecture in Helsinki. When I came to the end, I asked the audience…

The woman who wrote Afghanistan’s electoral laws lives on a houseboat in Bristol

3 August 2019 9:00 am

By the age of eight Vaira Vike-Freiberga had learnt that life was both ‘very strange and very unfair’. Her baby…

It’s not fair – I liked Il segreto di Susanna before it was cool: OHP’s double bill reviewed

3 August 2019 9:00 am

Should a secret pleasure ever be shared? Spoiler alert: Susanna’s secret, unknown to her husband Gil, is that she smokes.…

So sloooooooow: Photograph reviewed

3 August 2019 9:00 am

Ritesh Batra had a smash hit with his gentle romance The Lunchbox (2013) and then made a couple of less…

The reason Gomorrah is one of the best series ever shown on TV is its fidelity to truth

3 August 2019 9:00 am

My favourite epithet about my favourite TV series was the headline in a review by the Irish Times: ‘Gomorrah. Where…

Can computers compose?

3 August 2019 9:00 am

In 1871, the polymath and computer pioneer Charles Babbage died at his home in Marylebone. The encyclopaedias have it that…

These obscure Tennessee Williams scripts are classics of the future: Southern Belles reviewed

3 August 2019 9:00 am

Games for Lovers feels like a smart, sexy TV comedy. Martha is still in love with her old flame Logan…

Chatting to Bob Geldof about Boris and Brexit

3 August 2019 9:00 am

Coronis   We are steaming on Puritan towards the private isle of Coronis for a long Pugs weekend and the…

A trip to Dartmoor Prison with my grandson and his cousin

3 August 2019 9:00 am

My grandson Oscar (nine) shares a bedroom with his cousin Lucas (eight) and sits next to him at school. Before…

The village fête has been cancelled due to an ‘unauthorised incursion’

3 August 2019 9:00 am

The village fête had to be cancelled because of what they called an ‘incursion’ on to the green. The way…

Saturday’s King George was the finest contest I have ever seen on a racecourse

3 August 2019 9:00 am

It is stupid to become attached to inanimate objects but when modern technology finally forced me to ditch the Olivetti…

Bridge

3 August 2019 9:00 am

TGR’s Bridge Club in Paddington is the daily home to those of us who want to play bridge but cannot…

Game plan

3 August 2019 9:00 am

What distinguishes the expert from the amateur in chess is partly tactical fluency, but also the ability to map out long-term…

no. 565

3 August 2019 9:00 am

White to play. This position is from Capablanca-Lasker, Havana 1921. Capablanca was another great champion famed for his ability to…

To bee or not to bee

3 August 2019 9:00 am

In Competition No. 3109 you were invited to submit a short story entitled ‘The Last Bumble Bee’. The buff-tailed bumblebee,…

2419: Figures in place

3 August 2019 9:00 am

The unclued lights (individually or one pair) are of a kind. But, before entry into the grid, all but one…

to 2416: Silence

3 August 2019 9:00 am

Each unclued light contains a SILENT letter (with 11 containing two). First prize P.L. Macdougall, London SW6Runners-up Sir Graeme Davies,…

I’m considering joining the police – they need me

3 August 2019 9:00 am

I was driving to Gunnersbury Park last Sunday for my weekly 10K run when I caught the tail end of…

The Battle for Britain

3 August 2019 9:00 am

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Is the future of work flexible?

3 August 2019 9:00 am

Today we suffer disillusion, not because we are poorer than we were — on the contrary, even today we enjoy,…

A wine of Boris’s vintage

3 August 2019 9:00 am

My host twinkled sardonically. ‘We’re bound to be discussing Boris. So what’s the right wine?’ I suggested a bunker-busting Australian…

Is the term ‘Esquire’ U or non-U?

3 August 2019 9:00 am

‘I’m a learned doctor,’ cried my husband, pulling at the hems of his tweed coat and doing a little jig.…

When the music stops

3 August 2019 9:00 am

Slowly, Australians are awakening from their deep 28 years slumber. For nearly three decades, they have slept secure in the…

Business/Robbery etc

3 August 2019 9:00 am

ScoMo, please steer clear of anything to do with superannuation. Your unfortunate experience when Treasurer should have shown you that…