Searching in vain for the ‘soul’ of modern Russia
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?
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
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
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
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
My favourite epithet about my favourite TV series was the headline in a review by the Irish Times: ‘Gomorrah. Where…
Can computers compose?
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
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
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
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’
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
It is stupid to become attached to inanimate objects but when modern technology finally forced me to ditch the Olivetti…
Bridge
TGR’s Bridge Club in Paddington is the daily home to those of us who want to play bridge but cannot…
Game plan
What distinguishes the expert from the amateur in chess is partly tactical fluency, but also the ability to map out long-term…
no. 565
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
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
The unclued lights (individually or one pair) are of a kind. But, before entry into the grid, all but one…
to 2416: Silence
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
I was driving to Gunnersbury Park last Sunday for my weekly 10K run when I caught the tail end of…
Is the future of work flexible?
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
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?
‘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
Slowly, Australians are awakening from their deep 28 years slumber. For nearly three decades, they have slept secure in the…
Business/Robbery etc
ScoMo, please steer clear of anything to do with superannuation. Your unfortunate experience when Treasurer should have shown you that…
