Life
No. 623
White to play. Areshchenko–Koch, Bundesliga 2020. White has won rook for bishop, but the queen is offside and his Rf2…
When Garry met Fabi
Send in haste, repent at leisure. It is a cruel certainty that you will sooner or later text your intimate…
Spectator competition winners: the pleasures of bad poetry
In Competition No. 3167 you were invited to submit a rhymed poem that is leadenly prosaic in tone and content.…
2476: Playtime
The ten unclued lights (one of two words and hyphened) consist of two themes which can be resolved into five…
2473: May solution
The unclued lights, along with Peter MAY in the title, are England cricket captains. First prize Harry Hyman, Streatley, West…
DeChambeau’s the one to watch in the Masters
José Mourinho, it was surprising to read, recently said how relieved he was that the Amazon Prime cameras were out…
Social distancing in Soho: The French House reviewed
London is gasping — so where to go but Soho, which is so good at despair? It is often necrotic…
Dear Mary: How do I stop people assuming I’m a billionaire?
Q. My husband and I have spent many happy weekends in the seaside cottage of long-standing friends. Knowing how much…
Where did ‘herd immunity’ come from?
‘It was the pyres,’ said my husband. He meant the effect of television pictures of cattle, hooves silhouetted against the…
Aussie Life
Simon Collins ‘That’s 6 in a row. #Melbourne is, once again, the world’s most liveable city!’ So tweeted a proud…
Have big cities had their day?
About 15 years ago I noticed a few surviving chattel houses in Barbados and wondered what they were. As it…
Dear Mary: how can I avoid my friend’s awful favourite restaurant?
Q. Almost a year ago I attended the funeral of my godfather — a bachelor and distant relation whom I…
The Battle for Britain | 19 September 2020
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Changing the rules
Nothing courts us so nimbly as technology. Perhaps the chess computers have already won you over — I am dazzled…
No. 622
Black to play. Jones–McShane, London Chess Classic 2019. Last year I played two games of no-castling chess with Gawain Jones,…
Spectator competition winners: poems in praise of naked cyclists
In Competition No. 3166 you were invited to supply a poem either celebrating or lamenting the cancellation of Philadelphia’s annual…
2475: Poem VI
Unclued lights are ten words taken from a poem quoted in ODQ. The poet’s name (two words) will appear diagonally…
2472: All-inclusive solution
The perimeter quotation is from Mahler. Remaining unclued lights were names of symphonies: 12A Mahler / Schubert; 26A Haydn; 39A…
The WFH community are finally walking their own dogs — with terrible consequences
Every time I get on a horse I have to face the likelihood that a dog, or pack of dogs,…
What Barbara Black’s choice of friends says about her
Gstaad I’m not usually nonplussed, but this is very strange: the memoir of Barbara Black, the wife of my…
Bridge | 19 September 2020
My friend Ollie Burgess has just made the bold move of quitting his job in Manchester, and moving to London…
Why French car-boot sales are good for my mental health
Hairpin bends in a stony forest. Downhill. Steep, then steeper. Smooth frictionless tarmac. I’ve got the car barely under control.…
With good wine, it’s all in the timing
Three bottles, three questions that delivered three different answers. I was in Dorset — cannot keep away — enjoying the…
I admit it: I was wrong to back Boris
A friend emailed me earlier this week in despair about the Prime Minister. ‘Boris reminds me of a hereditary king…
The heirs to Frankie Dettori
It is all, it seems, in the tweaks. So said Aidan O’Brien, Ireland’s master-trainer supreme, before his tough filly Magical…
