How an orphaned baby kudu gave solace to my grieving friend
Laikipia, Kenya On 5 April this year, my neighbour Torrie’s sister Vicki died during an operation in a Nairobi…
Bridge
I’m just back from an exhilarating week in Istanbul, where I was lucky enough to be partnering Tom Paske in…
King’s Indian
The King’s Indian Defence is one of Black’s most dynamic reactions to closed openings such as d4/c4 and Nf3. Black…
no. 560
White to play. This position is from Michalik-Jirasek, Prague 2019. The game is only just out of the opening but…
Take three
In Competition No. 3104 you were invited to encapsulate the life story of a well-known person, living or dead, in…
2414: Matchplay
Seven unclued entries had the same relationship to an eighth (appearing as the two other unclued lights). Across 1 …
to 2411: Left Out
The unclued lights are famous LEFT-HANDED people. First prize Tony Hankey, London W4Runners-up Chris Butler, Borough Green, Kent; Julie Sanders,…
Britain is becoming more meritocratic, not less
You have to admire the Sutton Trust’s PR skills. For those who don’t know, the Sutton Trust is a social…
Sports journalism in Britain is being attacked by an American predator
Forty years ago the football transfer market went crazy: the British record was broken four times in 1979, more than…
Dear Mary: How do I handle the dreaded ‘B word’ at supper parties?
Q. I have lost many friends and acquaintances by discussing Brexit and finding fundamental differences of opinion. Recently I have…
I didn’t know kosher food this good existed: Decks in Tverya reviewed
Decks is a restaurant built on the Sea of Galilee. It is Benjamin and Sara Netanyahu’s favourite restaurant (it is…
Watch out for ‘watch on’
In Casablanca, Mr and Mrs Leuchtag resolve to speak English to each other in preparation for emigration to America. Mr…
Go fund yourself!
In 2009, on ABC’s Q&A, host Tony Jones asked host of Channel Ten’s The Project and practising Muslim Waleed Aly…
Clairvoyant on fuel security?
What is it about the words ‘fuel security’ that this government doesn’t understand? The first duty of any government is…
Brown study
As we speak, a bright new class of newly-elected MPs and Senators is assembling in the cities, towns and remote…
Simon Collins
You keep yourself nice, you shake the right hands. You spend decades cultivating the good opinion of punters of every…
Lawyers and law schools
Among a certain, shall we say more mature, segment of the population there is a lingering sense that lawyers as…
Legislating free speech
What is happening to Israel Folau should not happen in a free society. GoFundMe’s hypocritical decision to shut down a…
The Thuringian flagellants and the green gluers
Those young men and women who have taken to gluing themselves to walls and roads in order to save the…
American notes
Impeach Trump! (yawn) I suppose it is necessary to say – again – that it is not necessary to like…
Demography is destiny
When Sky News asked Australian Labor MP Anne Aly why she opposed the Coalition’s tax cut plan, she cited ‘the…
Brett Whiteley (1939-1992) Self portrait in the studio 1976
Painters and opera go together. Connected by passion and big gestures, it is not surprising that composers are drawn to…
All aboard the anti-Catholic bandwagon
Driven by spite and ideology masquerading as a concern for ‘justice’, the anti-Catholic bandwagon rumbles on, unimpeded by the fall-off…
From Folau to 18C
‘Folau has criticised not only those who are homosexual, but drunkards, thieves, atheists, fornicators, adulterers and so on. So he’s…
