From dram shop to Queen Mother’s handbag
A review of Gin Glorious Gin, by Olivia Williams. A diverting, if not remotely scholarly, history that charts the social ascent of this spirit, from dram shop to the Queen Mother’s handbag
Off the beaten track
Vincent Deary’s How We Are is crammed with ideas. William Leith can’t wait for the next two volumes
All the usual suspects
A review of The Establishment: And How They Get Away With It, by Owen Jones. The analysis is better when it is ideological rather than historical
Title Stories: A study in scarlet, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
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Lost in transfusion
A review of The Children Act, by Ian McEwan. The characterisation is scant and the writing poor, and he never gives religion a chance
The Indian lady at the chemist
I trust her look the shadow round her eyes her level stare explaining paracetamol these ones are strong take them…
The treasures of Turin
Italy's car capital is also now home to a 55,000 sq m cultural gem, the magnificent Polo Reale
Bloomsbury bores
By contrast the work of Frank Dobson and Matthew smith pack a punch, as a new National Portrait Gallery exhibition shows
Bad night for Berlioz
Teatro Regio di Torino’s concert performance of William Tell was, by contrast, superb
Brain drain
And Nicole Kidman’s face looks like those leftovers you keep in Tupperware in the fridge
Bent bureaucrats and bakers
Comic potential is squandered in Southwark Playhouse’s Eye of a Needle, while Matthew Kelly gives Richard Bean’s Toast an unexpected layer of pathos and humanity
Journey’s end
… and A.N. Wilson, whose Return to Betjemanland (BBC4) was a lesson on how to make great TV
Nursing on the front line
Ten paintings by Victor Tardieu depicting the pioneering work of first world war nurses are on show at the Florence Nightingale Museum
Low life
I envy young people packing their bags to go to university for the first time – though I waited a while before doing it myself
Bridge
One person who lets out a whoop of delight when I am on holiday is my saintly partner, Artur Malinowski.…
Gifted and talented
Despite occasional evidence to the contrary, I have persisted in the belief that the ability to play chess well indicates…
No. 330
White to play. This position is from Polgar-Bareev, Moscow 1996. Neither king is entirely happy and in such situations having…
Rhyme time
In Competition No. 2863 you were invited to recast a well-known nursery rhyme in the style of a well-known author.…
