Poking fun by proxy
I sincerely hope you’re not watching television. With the glorious summer sun we’re having, you should be having picnics and…
Bedtime stories
It had begun to look as if Radio 4’s Book at Bedtime had been taken over by the zealous publicity-hungry…
Bear necessity
Shaftesbury Avenue might not be traditional bear-hunting territory, but young adventure-seekers would be well advised to beat a path this…
High life
I am about to leave for karate camp in Thun, Switzerland, four days of double sessions lasting one hour and…
Low life
We were watching Top Gear. I was sitting on a wobbly fold-up chair at a rickety garden table in a…
Real life
You know you’re in bad shape when you need to make a list before you go to the GP. Admittedly,…
Long life
The government has done a puzzling U-turn over its plan to introduce plain packaging for cigarettes. It had seemed determined…
The Force is with us
Clive Cox, once a conditional jockey in Lambourn, fell at the first fence one year in the Grand National. ‘Mind…
Bridge
There was a particularly juicy deal during the recent European Open Mixed Teams in Ostend, which led to many pairs…
Ivanchuk the Terrible
Although he has never won the World Championship, Vassily Ivanchuk is the scourge of the world’s elite. In his day…
Puzzle No. 275
White to play. This position is from Ivanchuk-Kramnik, Moscow Blitz 2007. What is the most accurate way for White to…
Last word
In Competition 2806 you were invited to submit alternative endings for well-known novels or poems. A Farewell to Arms,…
2122: Theme and variations
The nine unclued lights (including two of two words) form three groups of three: two of the three groups each…
Solution to 2119: Filial request
The full quotation was ‘Mother, GIVE ME THE SUN’ (14/7) from Ghosts by HENRIK IBSEN (29/1D). Remaining unclued lights give…
A theatre critic at the school play
‘Another opening, another show,’ sang five-year-old Charlie on his way to school this morning — and then proceeded to belt…
A question of trust
Now that most taxi drivers use satnavs, should ‘the Knowledge’ be abolished? Shouldn’t we ditch the requirement that all London…
Dear Mary
Q. Regarding the writing of ‘no presents’ on an invitation (Dear Mary, 6 July), my own experience is that many…
A glass of wine with Dickens
Which is the greatest novel in the English language? Let us review the candidates: Clarissa, Pride and Prejudice, Middlemarch, The…
Dreamliner
‘Planes don’t run off batteries,’ declared my husband, his finger unerringly on the pulse of technology as ever. I had…
Ashes diary
Nottingham, UK When I previewed the Ashes series in England in these pages two weeks ago I erred on the…
Brown study
London Here, you can scarcely avoid the looming presence of the European Community. It seems that, every day, news arrives…
The useful Colonel Houses
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was determined to get the measure of Britain’s wartime prime minister Winston Churchill, and of Britain’s chances…
Carbon copy
The Coalition has been right to oppose both Julia Gillard’s carbon tax and Kevin Rudd’s emissions trading scheme. But Tony…
Australian Notes
Anyone who believes Kevin Rudd has changed will believe anything. So says the great cartoonist Bill Leak, unloading during the…
