Life
2489: Fade away - solution
All the unclued lights can be linked with PETER, 35/38 is the paired solution. First prize Gerry Fairweather, Layer Marney,…
Just not cricket: the BBC is failing the Test
Michael Vaughan might disagree but — putting aside 2005 and all that — was there a more thrilling and satisfying…
What more do I have to do to get a peerage?
Watching Lord Hannan of Kingsclere being introduced in the House of Lords on Monday was a bittersweet moment. On the…
Dear Mary: Is my husband’s forgetfulness about fastening his flies costing us friends?
Q. I was instrumental in finding some much-needed work for a local retired secretary/PA when I recommended her for the…
The dark roots of ‘grim’
‘Thus I refute Bishop Berkeley,’ said my husband, multitasking by kicking the stone and slightly misquoting Samuel Johnson at the…
Spectator competition winners: jokes in verse form
In Competition No. 3184 you were invited to tell a joke in verse form. This challenge, suggested by a reader…
Had the kitchen shop assistant been drugged and handcuffed?
The kitchen tap began dripping as if it knew perfectly well that this would land me in a predicament whereby…
Double Dutch
Are you not entertained? The climax of this year’s elite Tata Steel tournament was as riveting as it was vulgar.…
2492: Little man
Unusually this week, one unclued light includes the theme word which can also be linked with all the other unclued…
No. 639
White to play. Giri-Wojtaszek, Wijk aan Zee 2021. On his last move, Black waited with 48… Ba1-b2, yielding White a…
The Battle for Britain | 6 February 2021
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Bridge | 6 February 2021
The American professor Martin Seligman is one of the most influential psychologists in the world. Known as the father of…
The myth of American freedom
Gstaad Imagine a beautiful, sexy woman, an Ava Gardner or a Lily James, with a wart on the end of…
My tips for Cheltenham
Dry January it wasn’t and I am not referring to the trainers who normally undergo an annual abstinence but who…
In praise of the bacon butty
I was tipped off to meet a white Hyundai at a French motorway toll rest area at 2.30 p.m. (I…
Aussie Life
Has any speech by an American politician ever received more attention in the Australian media than Joe Biden’s inauguration speech?…
Aussie Lingo
Every other day some minor celebrity complains of being ‘trolled’ on social media. The answer is to get off social…
Remembering Kavalek
‘I began my escape from the communist Czechoslovakia 42 years ago, on Sunday, September 1, 1968. According to Wikipedia, I…
The fakery of Martha Gellhorn
Gstaad Martha Gellhorn was a long-legged blonde American writer and journalist who became Papa Hemingway’s third and penultimate wife. She…
Quarantine heralds the death of Mid-Atlantic Man
As an ambitious journalist making my way in Fleet Street, I dreamed of becoming a Mid-Atlantic Man. Tom Wolfe came…
2491: Recycling
Ten unclued lights comprise a septet with a common theme. Across 1 Running article perhaps subject to trial? (7)…
What should you put at the end of an email?
Suzanne Moore, the Telegraphcolumnist, found it ‘deeply annoying’ when perhaps five years ago she noticed people putting ‘Kind regards’ at…
Dear Mary: How can I deter acquaintances who want to stop and chat?
Q. There is a Tube stop next door to my place of work but I now walk in each day.…
Our obsession with city living is out of date
In March last year, the world made an interesting discovery. We found that a high proportion of knowledge-work could be…
The Battle for Britain | 30 January 2021
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