Life
How to judge a book by its colour
I pictured the Green Book (which Rishi Sunak has been urged to tear up) as a matt card-bound thing like…
Dear Mary: How can I avoid being bored by my quarantine pasta diet?
Q. We recently welcomed an 18-year-old au pair into our young family, and I’m pleased that she has settled in…
Quarantine with our new puppy will send me barking
When the news leaked at the weekend that the government was considering telling those aged 70 and over to self-quarantine…
My love affair with Hannah Arendt
The three of us — me, Catriona and her daughter Skye — were having a wash and brush-up before going…
The Battle for Britain | 21 March 2020
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No. 596
White to play. Shirov–Yuffa, Nutcracker Battle of the Generations, Moscow 2020. The rook on f7 is pinned, and 1 Rxf8+…
Candidates goes ahead
Coronavirus is causing chess events to fall like dominoes, with cancellations all over the world. But the Candidates tournament in…
The secret lives of poets
In Competition No. 3140 you were invited to submit a poem in the style of a famous poet in which…
2449: Stateless
Eight thematic words (one of two words), which solvers have to discover and whose two-letter abbreviations form the anagram I’M…
2446: Spring time solution
The omitted letters reveal SATURDAY THE TWENTY-NINTH OF FEBRUARY TWENTY TWENTY. First prize Lewis Osborne, Newton Mearns, Glasgow Runners-up G.H.…
Bridge | 21 March 2020
Bridge is obviously another casualty of the coronavirus. Clubs have closed their doors; tournaments have been cancelled; championships have been…
Cheltenham Festival was a triumph
The socialite MP Chips Channon once noted in his diaries his feelings about an after-lunch snooze in parliament’s Library: ‘It…
The badlands of rural Surrey
The most exciting place on earth I have ever been to is the village where I live. And I don’t…
The joys of social isolation
No use datelining any more, I’m here for the duration. Even the ski lifts have been ordered to close: chiuso,…
Billy the kid, football’s star of the future
Sadly it looks as though the 2020 Six Nations may have to go down with an asterisk and an explanation…
Africa’s invisible epidemics
Africa ‘Ah, Africa,’ the French scientist sighed contentedly. This was 1995 and all around us was an Ebola epidemic…
If I don’t like being fat, I should be allowed to say so
The game was up when I put on a pair of size 14 jodhpurs at the country store and they…
No. 595
Black to play. Tomashevsky–Lomasov, Nutcracker Battle of the Generations, Moscow 2020. A position with a surprising twist. Tomashevsky has just…
2448: Issues
Four pairs of unclued lights (17/5, 22/27, 29/31 and 8/26) form anagrams of the titles (one hyphened, three of three…
2445: in other words II
41/1A/10 is MISQUOTATION. 1D/24/33, 15, 34, and 38/16D are examples of common misquotations. First prize Dianne Parker, Dover, KentRunners-up Vincent…
America has turned into a bad joke
Gstaad Rumours about the virus are flying around this village. First there was talk of a hotel being temporarily…
The Battle for Britain | 14 March 2020
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Bridge | 14 March 2020
Just back from Monaco, the tiny principality famously dubbed ‘a sunny place for shady people’ by Somerset Maugham. Pierre Zimmermann,…
The joy of Xanax
The greater the enervation, it is said, the greater the appreciation of a work of art. There was no place…
Spectator competition winners: Grave thoughts
In Competition No. 3139 you were invited to submit a four-line verse epitaph for a well-known person, living or dead.…
