Life
The Battle for Britain
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Bridge
We’re all guilty of making silly mistakes at the bridge table and then hurriedly trying to explain them away —…
The turf
Seen any groundhogs your way? In racing the New Year began much as the old one had ended. At Cheltenham’s…
Real life
Last night I dreamt I went on holiday again. It seemed to me I stood by the departure gate, and…
Low life
I listed for Catriona the reasons why I did not want to go out to dinner that evening at the…
High life
Gstaad It is hard to imagine that we have reached the year 2022 and are still imposing completely irrelevant…
Aussie Life
One of the reasons I still buy newspapers is that what no longer seems to be true of vocabulary and…
Aussie Language
This appears to be a case of ‘What were they thinking?’ The good folk at the Macquarie Dictionary have announced…
Am I being impersonated by an actor from Colorado or a mining company?
Someone else with my name is wreaking havoc with my attempts to control the Twitter account I don’t want. Obviously,…
Bridge | 18 December 2021
Bridge is not too enticing if your parents had card evenings when you were a child, which often ended in…
Dear Mary, from Matt Hancock: after an eventful year, how should I get in touch with old friends?
From Lady Antonia Fraser Q. I enjoy getting readers’ letters, but there is one category I am at a loss…
The Battle for Britain | 18 December 2021
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The promise of South Africa
‘Earth has not anything to show more fair.’ One can admire the view from Westminster Bridge and feel near the…
Would my scan results be a death sentence?
At the desk I gave my name and showed my Covid vaccination pass and the woman told me to take…
The sheer joy of a sherry trifle
Christmas brings out the best and the worst in me. It’s a chance to give in to my inclination to…
British horse racing’s debt to the Middle East
A joyful Saturday at Ascot recently reminded me that when the old Hurst Park Racecourse (near Hampton Court Palace) closed…
A brief history of the death of God
A few weeks after Friedrich Nietzsche bragged to an admirer that he had completed a ruthless attack on our Lord,…
The torment of a tasting menu: Hélène Darroze at the Connaught reviewed
The Connaught Hotel’s formal dining room was always, to me, a place of childish myth; more comforting for being mythical.…
Some (tentative) reasons to be cheerful in 2022
Someone sent me a job advert recently for a Junior Research Fellowship at Queen’s College, Oxford. It states: ‘The Queen’s…
2534: Off-pitch - solution
The unclued lights are cricket fielding positions. The clues contain the names of 12 present and former England cricketers: Old,…
Spectator competition winners: Harold Pinter’s Nativity
In Competition No. 3229, you were invited to provide the story of the Nativity retold in the style of a…
No. 683
White to play and mate in 3. Composed by Albert Barbe, 1861. Only the first move is required, but it’s…
Everyone should be sick in the street once
I learned a great deal at university, about half of it from a man called Raymond Foulk. Ray was not…
A long-forgotten tale of sorcery and a severed head
Laikipia Plateau, Kenya Our local chief Panta wore a government-issue khaki uniform with epaulettes, beret and swagger stick. On a…
