Aurora Orchestra’s Brexit concert nearly turned me into a Leaver
Back when the UK was assumed to be leaving the European Union on 29 March, the Aurora Orchestra was invited…
A masterclass of menace and magnificence: Romeo and Juliet reviewed
Two households, both alike in dignity. Capulets in red tights, Montagues in green. Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet opens in…
An exceptional dystopia that’s made for TV: The Phlebotomist reviewed
The Phlebotomist by Ella Road explores the future of genetics. Suppose a simple blood test were able to tell us…
Intriguing and beguiling but God know what it adds up to: Happy as Lazzaro reviewed
Alice Rohrwacher’s Happy as Lazzaro sets out as a neorealist tale of exploited sharecroppers, but midway through the story it…
Mortimer Sackler and me
New York It was 51 years ago, in the Hôtel du Cap d’Antibes, that I first met the man…
Am I about to be usurped by Philippe, our handsome French gardner?
We have a gardener, Philippe, who comes once a week. He lives in a ruin a little way down the…
The builder boyfriend and I have left the EU – and it’s great
After all that waiting and arguing, I must say I thoroughly enjoyed leaving the EU. The builder boyfriend and I…
My time in Somalia with Michael Meacher, Tony Benn’s ‘vicar on earth’
East Africa The late Michael Meacher represented almost everything I loathe in a politician. Before his death in 2015,…
Bridge
Each March, a roll call of bridge superstars come to compete in the Vanderbilt Knockout Teams, one of America’s most…
Advance planning
One way to improve your results is to develop a specific opening repertoire and learn it thoroughly so as to…
no. 548
White to play. This position is a variation from Mamedyarov-Li Reufeng, PRO League 2017. This game also started with White…
Spring villanelle
In Competition No. 3092 you were invited to submit a spring villanelle. The villanelle lends itself to themes of loss…
2402: Test pilots
Eight unclued entries are of a kind. A 9-letter word for their position must be highlighted in the grid. …
to 2399: Lines of Work
The unclued lights form the folk rhyme ‘Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, rich man, poor man, beggar-man, thief’. A.A. Milne (MILNE…
Now – as in the Soviet Union – making a joke can be a dangerous, life-changing mistake
I was surprised to learn that the novelist Milan Kundera celebrated his 90th birthday on Monday. I had no idea…
Have referees just given up?
Sometimes you fear for Neil Warnock. The embattled Cardiff manager is 70 and operates at level 11 all the time;…
Dear Mary: how can I stop my husband from hijacking my punchlines?
Q. A woman I’ve known for years is getting divorced and rings me every day to talk about it. I…
The joy of garlic and easy listening: Pucci in Mayfair reviewed
I grew up in south-west London in the 1970s when Italian restaurants had exposed brick walls and paper tablecloths in…
‘Shame’ is no longer one’s greatest fear, it’s offence culture’s default response
In 1663, just before Samuel Pepys visited the stables of the elegant Thomas Povey, where he found the walls were…
Doomed yoof
Asians need not fear the Australian Labor party, but they should lock up their kids. Labor ‘yoof’ is on the…
Black and white clouds over New Zealand
The Christchurch mosque massacres of March 15 brought out the best and the worst in New Zealanders. The best was…
Brown study
What do the ABC and the New Zealand terrorist horror have in common? Apart, I mean, from the fact that…
Simon Collins
There are two kinds of political figure who cannot be effectively satirised. One is the kind of leader who makes…
Vale Peter Coleman
William Peter Coleman (15 December 1928 – 31 March 2019) was that increasingly rare creature in contemporary Australia, a great…
