no. 421
White to play. This position is from Steinitz–Chigorin, World Championship (Game 4), Havana 1892. How did White finish off? Answers…
Preaching in pictures
To call Nils Büttner a killjoy is perhaps a little unfair, but not very. The professor at Stuttgart’s State Academy…
Desperate liaison
Six years ago, the Canadian author Clancy Martin made a splash with his autobiographical novel How to Sell, based on…
China syndrome
The Chinese government is unlikely to give Theresa May a panda in the near future. This week the country’s ambassador…
The axeman cometh
All organic beings descended from a single primordial blob, according to Darwin. Some of them developed sufficiently to leave the…
When more data makes you more wrong
In a one-day international against Australia last year, Ben Stokes was dismissed for ‘obstructing the field’, a rule rarely invoked…
The horrors of French colonialism
We can all share the anguish in the downfall of a simple soul — for movie-goers Brando’s despairing ‘I coulda’…
Character study
Will Lyons, a delightful companion, is not only a friend of mine. He has one of the finest palates in…
Trees of life and death
Was it perhaps the landscape historian Oliver Rackham who gave rise to our present preoccupation with old trees through his…
Long lives the King
Elvis only ever appeared in one commercial in his life — for Southern Maid, his favourite jam doughnut shop. That…
They’re all doomed
Night of Fire is Colin Thubron’s first novel for 14 years. For most of us he is better known as…
Australian diary
It is census night and what a controversial thing this census is turning out to be. The twitter feed is…
Requiem for a designer dream
Threnody. Dirge. Lament. Epitaph. Elegy. Wake. There are so many English terms to describe the passing of people and things…
Tartan-ing up the arts
Many years ago an arts spokesperson for the SNP launched an extraordinary attack on Scottish Opera, saying, ‘If push comes…
Northern exposure
As the festival grows, the good acts are harder to find and the prices keep rising to meet the throngs…
In praise of Bill
A few months ago I attended a lunch at which I was serendipitously seated next to a hero of mine,…
Oven-ready
Todd Solondz’s Wiener-Dog is billed as a ‘dark comedy’ although it is far more dark than comic. If pressed to…
The problem with grammar schools
By rights, I should be one of those Tories who is passionately in favour of grammar schools. After all, I…
Red sex, blue sex, hypocritical sex, true sex
White people and white culture in the US is being analysed, dissected and problematized with the rise of Donald Trump…
Faster – higher – stronger – more politically correct
I’ve been an avid fencer since prep school. Back then I wore the whole get-up – the jacket, the mask,…
Comment on Tartan-ing up the arts by Sunset66
Maybe be you could swagger to the sash Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment below.
Comment on Tartan-ing up the arts by Arron Blue
“If it is, then instead of embracing this venality Scottish artists should aim to transcend and transform.” When do you…
Comment on The Clintons made Trump by bob labinne
For my personnal taste, I prefer to get screwed by a stupid guy, than a experienced man or woman. I…
Comment on Tartan-ing up the arts by Sunset66
I have told you before you are in a very small minority of scots who choose to denigrate their own…
Comment on Tartan-ing up the arts by Arron Blue
James [OBE] is writing a new opera entitled “The Scottish Cringe”. It deals with his own beliefs. Got something to…
