Secret ski resorts
Steer clear of the expensive Alpine mega-resorts to find hidden gems with the ski-runs less travelled
Sic transit: the buildings we treasure most are often the ones we’ve never seen
Two books on loss and ruins by James Crawford and Robert Harbison make for evocative and poignant reading
Martian poetry
In Competition No. 2923 you were invited to describe an everyday object, in verse, from the point of view of…
The best new cook books include recipes for Toad-in-the-hole, braised Pilot Whale and seal soup
Rose Prince explores the cuisines of Ukraine, Scandinavia, China and New York — and ends up with the simple egg
2237: Experimental
One unclued light is a publication (two words). The others are relevant figures (all in Chambers) who appear in a…
He knew he was right
A vast number emigrated during de Valera’s rigid theocracy, which lasted over half a century — a fact he barely acknowledged, according to Ronan Flanning’s biography,
To 2234: A greater measure
MARCOBRUNNER (11) is composed of words whose definitions are 1D, 24, 32; 13, 17, 35; and 9, 29A, 38. First…
Loneliness and the love of friends
The supremely gifted, but tragically short-lived, artist looks set for a much-deserved revival with the publication of two handsome new anthologies of his work
Meet Leo, the youngest member of our household
Yes, we’ve got a dog – and he’s more trouble than a newborn baby
Life in the chain gang
The ‘veteran’ Millar’s latest harrowing memoir describes a cycle of constant pain as he grows old in the saddle, aged 36
Too much gush
Edna O’Brien’s Little Red Shoes transports Radovan Karadizic (or ‘Vlad’) to fictional Cloonoila — in gushing, sub-Hemingway style
Seb Coe is a fine man… but his roasting over the Russian athletics scandal is justified
Killing the messenger was never the best policy and now he needs all his determination and discipline to get this straightened out
Celebrity lives
Julie Burchill is not impressed by the latest batch of celebrity autobiographies — though she does recommend buying two copies of Alan Sugar’s Unscripted
Dear Mary on cheering up an ageing Adonis….
....and clever tactics for dealing with nuisance callers
Redecorate the restaurant, but you can’t redecorate the clientele
45 Jermyn St removes the flounces of The Fountain, but retains its soft-faced super-rich diners
Inconceivable
Here we go again. Almost twenty years after it almost brought down John Howard in the 1998 election, the Great…
Australian diary
Some months back, head of government duties meant that I had to decline an invitation to give the Thatcher lecture…
Climate crimes
The Pope, the Paris conference and anti-coal actvists appear happy to condemn the third world to energy poverty
