Life
Spectator competition winners: Edward Lear and Pam Ayres write dirges
In Competition No. 3182 you were invited to rewrite a famous piece of light verse with a dirge-like, hieratic tone…
Piccadilly Circus, delivered: the Wolseley’s home dining reviewed
The Corbin & King dining and home entertaining box includes dishes from the Delaunay, the Wolseley and Brasserie Zédel ‘delivered…
Christmas 2020 crossword solution
The winners The first prize of £100, three prizes of £25 and six further prizes of Word Perfect by Susie…
Dear Mary: How do we thank a friend when we’ve forgotten what they sent us?
Q. Following the birth of our child we were deluged with cards, gifts and money from kind family and friends.…
The Battle for Britain | 23 January 2021
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Sailing’s coming home: the stunning Ben Ainslie comeback
Alan Bond was a rogue and a rich man, in every way your typical Aussie larrikin. In 1983 he bankrolled…
Farewell to my dear friend Richard, the very best of us
I heard the shocking news last week that one of my oldest friends — Richard Edwards — had died suddenly…
My unlikely friendship with Sir David Barclay
Gstaad This might surprise a few people, but I was very friendly with our late co-proprietor Sir David Barclay, a…
2490: Arrangement
The unclued lights are all words of a kind arranged into anagrams (all are confirmed in Chambers: one is a…
History at Hastings
The Hastings International Chess Congress hasn’t skipped a year since the second world war, so I was delighted to learn…
Bridge | 23 January 2021
When lockdown began, all those months ago, I remember chatting to a few of England’s top players about the shift…
My message to the log police
Here, as in Britain, everyone is a log expert. The woodman leaves a heap at the bottom of the drive…
What’s a squashed dog between neighbours?
Not long after he took on a smallholding for his cobs, the builder boyfriend found a couple walking through his…
In defence of gambling
Doing good doesn’t always work out as expected. A regular entering his local pub takes pity on an old lady…
Aussie Life / Language
Simon Collins Can you remember when ‘We live in interesting times’ was an acceptable response to the disruptions caused by…
2489: Fade away
Each of the unclued lights, (four of two words), individually or as a pair can be linked with an unclued…
Meal kits are a recipe for mayhem
Caroline was pretty heroic during the first lockdown. She’s used to having no children to deal with between the hours…
Spectator competition winners: publishers rejecting literary classics
In Competition No. 3181 you were invited to submit a letter by a publisher rejecting a well-known literary classic. The…
Lockdown means it’s time to drink your most prized bottles of wine
Losing your sense of smell due to Covid is no joke when you make a living in food and wine.…
Dear Mary: How can we set up our single friends in lockdown?
Q. My husband and I have two single friends who we believe should be introduced. In days gone by, we…
Boris Johnson’s face can’t be ‘performative’
Veronica brought me a hundred newspapers so that I could check on one word. Well, she didn’t bring a wheelbarrow,…
Will remote-working strengthen the case for HS2?
Soon after the pandemic hit, the world’s airlines turned off their pricing algorithms and resumed pricing flights manually. Everything the…
Eccentric, artist and storyteller: in memory of my mother Doreen Sanders
Indian Ocean coast ‘I love you’ became just ‘love’, and that was the last word Mum was able to say…
Join me for weekly Scream If You’re Going Round The Bend
Never mind Clap for Carers, I’m trying to start a new weekly morale booster called Scream If You’re Going Round…
Trauma has become as American as apple pie
Gstaad Lord Belhaven and Stenton, a wonderful man and the quintessential English gentleman, died at 93 just before the end…
