Life
Thanks for nothing, Jordan Pickford
You might hate the Premier League for its determination to suck all the money out of football, but at least…
Dear Mary: Can I still socialise with my virus-denying friends?
Q. An old friend offered to treat me to a birthday lunch, provided I choose and book the restaurant myself.…
This replica is better than the original: The Ivy Oxford Brasserie reviewed
Oxford is not an easy city to homogenise; but that doesn’t mean you can’t try. I found a vast shopping…
The truth about Adrenochrome
QAnon, the conspiracy theorist’s conspiracy theory, teaches that President Donald Trump is in secret warfare with a worldwide network of…
Aussie Life & Language
Simon Collins I have been wondering what whale tastes like. There must be quite a few Australians who know. After…
New York is a paradise for criminals
New York New York, New York, once a wonderful town/ The people are crap and the mayor’s a clown/ The…
Has my tech guy moved to Africa to escape from me?
‘I can’t put it off any longer. She’s dying and I don’t think I can ignore the inevitable. We’ve got…
From half a shelf to a library: my life in books
‘Yes, I will have a coffee,’ said the van driver. He’d driven down to the south of France from Devon.…
Dear Mary: We’ve had to downsize our wedding – can we still ask everyone for presents?
Q. A year ago we sent out 150 save-the-date notices for our wedding this December. We are still going ahead,…
Why can’t we talk about the Great Barrington Declaration?
You probably haven’t heard of the Great Barrington Declaration. This is a petition started by three scientists on 4 October…
Perry Worsthorne: a man incapable of dullness
I had known Perry Worsthorne for several years before I went to work for him in 1986 (horrifying how time…
Are you guilty of ‘genteelism’?
‘Everyone’s been very kind to my husband and I,’ said someone behind me in a (spaced) queue. That is the…
Why we should consider testing Covid on prisoners
The Covid problem lies as much in the delayed action of the virus as in the virus itself. Since symptoms…
The Battle for Britain | 17 October 2020
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It is time to fight for the future of racing
Fortunately for me and the politicians we entertained over my years covering the darkest profession, Mrs Oakley didn’t do a…
Bridge | 17 October 2020
‘I have a wonderful hand to show you,’ Gunnar Hallberg exclaimed when I saw him last week. Gunnar is a…
Chess players on ice
We are what we do. Alas, in its zeal to suppress the virus, this government would have many people doing…
No. 626
Rapport–Sprenger, Bundesliga, September 2020. The game continued 1 Bxc4 Rxc4 2 Bxe5+ f6 3 Bf4 Rxe4+ 4 Kf3 and was…
2479: Shielded
The unclued lights (one of two words and one hyphened) are of a kind, verifiable in Brewer. Across 10 United…
2476: Playtime solution
The unclued lights form pairs of famous soloists and the instruments they play; 1A/19, 5/34, 23/8, 31/39, 43/16A. First prize…
Spectator competition winners: Shakespeare lays down the law
In Competition No. 3170, a challenge inspired by Shelley’s assertion that ‘poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world’, you…
Aussie Life & Language
Brendan Ward A re-run of Cathy Freeman’s heart-stopping 400 metre race at the Sydney Olympics in September 2000 recently animated…
Kiwi Life
Once upon a time here in New Zealand, when political dinosaurs still roamed the earth, Prime Minister Keith Holyoake startled…
Bridge | 10 October 2020
One of the things that makes bridge so endlessly fascinating is that it is forever changing and growing. At high…
My nights of passion with Juliette Gréco
Gstaad Juliette Gréco’s recent death in her nineties brought back some melodramatic memories. In 1957 Gréco was one of France’s…
