Life
The terror of seeing my dog attacked
I was walking with our one-year-old cavapoochon on the way back from the baker’s in Acton on Sunday morning when…
Dear Mary: how do we deal with a neighbour who is stealing our friends?
Q. A dear friend of long-standing has a propensity to make friends of our friends — people she has first…
The tyranny of French bureaucracy
Applying for a French bank account is like trying for a permit to open a Christian bookshop in North Korea.…
The ugly truth about natural horsemanship
The rope riders came down the driveway slowly, their horses veering this way and that, side to side, forwards a…
The Battle for Britain | 27 March 2021
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Vibrant
‘Think yourself lucky,’ said my husband when I told him about poor John Stuart Mill’s mother, who had nine children…
Finally la Vendée has a winemaker worthy of its traditions
A year of lockdowns has certainly passed slowly. But there are topics for thought. One disappointment has been the Church…
2496: Depart Paddington - solution
The play was The Winter’s Tale by Shakespeare. The perimetric dramatis personae are MAMILLIUS, LEONTES, FLORIZEL, DORCAS, MOPSA, HERMIONE and…
Mother Nature is giving us her middle finger
Gstaad I have never experienced such a long, continuous blizzard, and I’ve been coming here for 63 years. The ski…
2499: Entitled trio
The unclued lights, including three proper nouns (two of two words), consist of three groups of three words of a…
The bard responds to news that he has been cancelled
In Competition No. 3191 you were invited to submit a Shakespearean soliloquy reflecting on the news that the Bard has…
No. 646
Black to play… and lose! Aronian–Van Foreest, March 2021. Van Foreest’s next move didn’t blunder his queen but was nonetheless…
Bridge | 27 March 2021
The Young Chelsea Knock Out is a terrific tournament, and the best thing about it is that the winners get…
Everybody must get stoned
Have you ever played the Frankenstein-Dracula variation? The Monkey’s Bum? The Nescafé Frappé Attack? These are all real chess openings,…
The genius branding of the ‘Oxford’ vaccine
I am writing with a mild pain in one arm, having received my first dose of the Oxford vaccine yesterday…
Aussie Life
I didn’t plan to watch it. I just happened to switch on my TV as it was starting. And the…
Aussie Language
Is there a linguistic solution to the misuse of the word ‘racism’? Under so-called Critical Race Theory almost everything is…
Why I’ve gone right off the police
‘Welcome to Victims First. Please leave your name and number and we will return your call. Beeeeeeeeeeeep!’ I had rung…
The Battle for Britain | 20 March 2021
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My plan to kick off life after lockdown
The last time I went to a football game was on Saturday 7 March last year when my 12-year-old son…
The Richard Freeman affair casts a cloud over British cycling
For those with neither the time nor inclination to plough through a PhD in the intricacies of the scandals surrounding…
Dear Mary: How can I prioritise ‘first division’ friends after lockdown?
Q. Before Covid, I was staying with friends in the country every other weekend. As a single man living in…
The finest humous in England: Arabica food boxes reviewed
Restaurant-goers who cannot let go of restaurants — for professional or other reasons — are floating on a sea of…
No. 645
Black to play. Kosteniuk–Koneru, Skolkovo Grand Prix, 2019. The obvious 1…Kg3 fails to 2 Rg5+ Kf4 3 Rg4+. Losing the…
Bridge | 20 March 2021
If anyone is going to cause me agonies at the bridge table in front of 800 kibitzers by subjecting me…
