Tuscany’s killer climate
The hotel manager had arranged for me to borrow an Alfa Romeo Spider Duetto two-seater convertible (1982) for the afternoon.…
Not going to the osteopath cured me
Not going to the osteopath worked a treat. Walking out of that surgery after hearing the crunching coming from inside…
Bridge
All high-level bridge tournaments involve playing with screens placed diagonally across the table — and there are numerous rules to…
Howard Staunton
Staunton was the most successful British player of all time, winning three matches against European masters in the 1840s which…
no. 562
White to play. This is from Wassin-Grigorchuk, Izola 2019. Although the game is only just out of the opening, White…
Twister
In Competition No. 3106 you were invited to submit a poem with an ingenious twist at the end. This challenge,…
2416: Silence
The unclued lights share a common feature at least once, different in each case. Across 7 Liechtenstein test about…
to 2413: Sign here please
The unclued lights are EPISCOPAL SIGNATURES First prize Jason James, CambridgeRunners-up K.M. Robb, Borrowstounness, West Lothian; McNeill, Belfast Got something…
I love Boris for not firing me when I wrote a play about his sex life
Fourteen years ago, almost to the day, Lloyd Evans and I received a note from Boris. It was the press…
What the new generation of tennis players could learn from Rocket Rod Laver
A chum was in Waitrose a year or two back, and was bending down with some difficulty to look at…
Dear Mary: How do I stop men sending me articles from the Guardian?
Q. It is difficult to know what to do when homeless people ask you for cash as you are leaving…
The devil eats Prada: Patisserie Marchesi 1824 reviewed
The Prada Café is both a cake shop and a historical inevitability. It sits on Mount Street, almost opposite the…
The Lib Dems are wrong – it’s ‘ballocks’ to Brexit
I agree with James Joyce on the spelling ballocks. The Liberal Democrats made their MEPs wear T-shirts printed with ‘Bollocks…
Simon Collins
‘The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there,’ is the opening line of The Go-Between, L. P.…
Brown study
As you know, here at The United Nations Cultural Reform Unit we have embarked on a major project to remake…
Diary
The gloss of a new political year doesn’t take long to wear off. The shiny enthusiasm that accompanies the pomp…
Indigenous voice?
It’s Naidoc Week in Australia, and this year’s theme is: ‘Voice. Treaty. Truth. Let’s work together.’ As the locals are…
Morality managers
Financially rewarded beyond the wildest dreams of rank-and-file Australians, some of the nation’s managerial elites are labouring under a delusion.…
Ghostbusters
Last week the miserable ghost of Malcolm Turnbull put in an apparition at the Friends of Wolper Jewish Hospital. Presumably…
Lefty lawyers, Part 2
Last week I noted that the lawyers of today, as a class, are a lot more left-leaning and politically correct…
Shakespeare in Love
For centuries plays have been derived from novels, myths and legends but only recently have we become used to plays…
Naidoc’s ‘themes’
It’s Naidoc Week, which is, quote, ‘a time for all Australians to celebrate the history, culture and achievements of all…
Vengeful pygmies
It says almost everything that needs to be said about Niki Savva’s latest book that its original title was Highway…
Abolish the arts degree (and start again)
In addition to my full-time job as a commercial journalist, I sometimes teach English to high school students, usually in…
