At last, a great achievement at the Royal Opera: Macbeth reviewed
At last, a great time at the Royal Opera: a magnificent performance, in every way, of Verdi’s Macbeth, curiously but…
The Plough and the Stars at the Lyric Hammersmith shows Sean O’Casey is one of the greats
The Plough and the Stars by Sean O’Casey looks at the Irish nationalist movement during the events of Easter 1916.…
Thank you, West Midlands, for the blind alley of heavy metal – blues without rhythm, wit or soul
They’re still alive, then. Chuggedy-chug, grawk, screech screech, chuggedy-chug. First mention of demons — line one, song two. Song one…
The genius of This Country
Sometimes — really not often but sometimes — a programme that’s good and honest and true slips under the wire…
The truth about Prince Charles
Gstaad At dinner the other night a friend wondered what came first, social climbing or name-dropping? It’s obviously a very…
The black art of acting
I go to the theatre but rarely because I am overpowered by even mediocre acting and find it exhausting. Theatre…
I’m being spied on in my bedroom by a drone
The sound of something hideous woke me in the dead of night, and I shot out of bed. I looked…
It was ladies first at Cheltenham
At soggy Newbury last Saturday racegoers were still reliving memories of an epic Cheltenham Festival. ‘Were you there for that…
Bridge
Have you ever picked up your hand, opened a weak 2 on a proper six-card suit (all right, if you’re…
Victor Ludorum
A match which has attracted less attention than it deserves was Luke McShane’s victory over David Howell in the final…
no. 499
White to play. This position is from a later game in the match, McShane-Howell, London 2017. How did White conclude…
Creative spark
In Competition No. 3041, to mark the centenary of the birth of Muriel Spark, you were invited to submit a…
2352: Upright Characters
Of the unclued entries, three combine to form a phrase (five words) describing three more (four foreign-language words). The remaining…
to 2349: Novel
The novel was HOWARDS END by E.M. Forster. Round the perimeter run the characters LEONARD BAST, PERCY CAHILL, MARGARET SCHLEGEL…
Genetics and the truth about private schools
A paper published last week in an academic journal called npj Science of Learning attracted an unusual amount of press…
Had 533 people voted differently, the Tories would have a full majority
Nine years ago, before Cambridge Analytica existed, I caught wind of a research project at Cambridge involving the online measurement…
Dear Mary: How to get out of a neighbours’ dinner party invite?
Q. A couple who live directly opposite us in London have sent a save-the-date notice for a big party they…
When it comes to food and wine, there’s no place like Rhône
As often, a good glass stimulated good talk. We were drinking some promising young Rhônes and the discussion ranged wide,…
Word of the week: dot
With the sensation produced by hearing one’s name, I jumped when I saw mine on a poster advertising an Amazon…
Australian letters
Dark days Sir: David Dilley (Letters, 17 March) suggests ‘co-operation between local communities and enlightened landowners’ might assist in the…
Time to rise again
I bought a different brand of diary for this year, and it has dropped Easter. Easter Day is plain Sunday…
Wilder still and wilder
Hello! Hello! Hello! What have we here? What we have is the new Plant – the sixth – from Michael…
Cricket notes
From little sins big sins grow The Australian cricket team are a bunch of cheats. There is no other way…
Simon Collins
Like many Australians I was greatly affected by the news that James Packer has decided he is not well enough…
