The murderous gangs who run the world
According to Zero Zero Zero by Roberto Saviano and Dreamland by Sam Quinones, the flow of Class A drugs around the world is now unstoppable, and traffickers have grown increasingly violent. If only the trade were regulated, all this could change
Growing Up
This morning, as I commuted through Hendon Central, I remembered you telling me you saw that day’s newspaper there on…
The London ear
It’s easy to tag the terrain of the capital city by writer. But what might a map of its music look like?, wonders Philip Clark
All you need is love
Plus: knives and nudity from Wendy Whelan and Edward Watson at the Linbury Studio Theatre
He wuz robbed!
Lucas Debargue, the 24-year-old French pianist with a riveting backstory, is the only competitor anyone is talking about
To tell you the truth…
It’s just two charmless, boring men sitting across the table from each other being charmless and boring
Scholarship and folly
Plus: Soundscapes at the National Gallery reviewed: Martin Gayford reckons that soundtracks are best left inside the artist’s head
Eastern promise
Plus: there’s a thrilling Verdi rarity, Giovanna d’Arco, at Buxton but Lucia di Lammermoor is not an essential night at the opera
Night at the circus
Plus: Orson Welles and Laurence Olivier square up to each other at Southwark Playhouse in a play that is almost a triumph
Tax return
Plus: Radio 3’s The Last Moor reviewed: ‘The least important thing about Othello is the colour of his skin’
Serial thriller
Plus: Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen is the interior design equivalent of the Greek economy
Wild life
We are building fences against people who are dedicated to burglary and malicious damage 24 hours a day
Bridge
Omar Sharif did so much for bridge. He inspired countless others through his own devotion to the game (‘Acting is…
Fabulous Fabiano
Fabiano Caruana notched the result of his life at the Sinquefield Trophy in St Louis last year. Since then he…
No. 370
Black to play. This position is a variation from Kramnik-Naiditsch, Dortmund 2015. How can Black make a decisive material gain?…
Poetry in motion
In Competition No. 2906 you were invited to write a poem about an encounter in an airport. Craig Raine’s poem…
2220: Poem II
Unclued lights (two hyphened) are words (all but one of which are in ODQ) from a poem whose title appears…
Urban foxes, the ginger menace
Suggestions on a postcard: we need to solve this scourge of our cities
