Life
Harry, Jeffrey and Benoit
I first ate at the London version of Harry’s Bar in the early 1990s. Back then, Jeffrey Archer and I…
High life
What a great year this has been, what a good mood I’m in, why, it’s almost like being in love.…
Long life
New Year’s Day is the most depressing of holidays. It doesn’t celebrate anyone or anything worth celebrating. It simply marks…
Long life
New Year’s Day is the most depressing of holidays. It doesn’t celebrate anyone or anything worth celebrating. It simply marks…
Low life
I drew back the curtains. Yet another absolutely still, sunny day. Early-morning mist lying in the valleys. An echoing report…
Low life
I drew back the curtains. Yet another absolutely still, sunny day. Early-morning mist lying in the valleys. An echoing report…
Uh-oh
Here are the first 50 words in the order that they were learnt by a child called Will: 1 uh-oh;…
Real life
What a fraught, divisive, infuriating sort of year it’s been. It started with me attempting to go on a blind…
Do I hang myself out to dry again?
And so it begins again. This time last year, I decided to see how long I could last without alcohol.…
Do I hang myself out to dry again?
And so it begins again. This time last year, I decided to see how long I could last without alcohol.…
Keep death off the roads with an app
Controversial I know, but I feel a little sympathy for Tomasz Kroker, the lorry driver jailed for ten years for…
Bridge
There are an awful lot of bridge babies in the world — that is, babies born to mothers so addicted…
The Battle for Britain
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Bridge
There are an awful lot of bridge babies in the world — that is, babies born to mothers so addicted…
Game of the year
Probably the most spectacular game played in the past year was the brilliant win by Gawain Jones in the Olympiad.…
no.437
White to play and win. This is a position from Caruana-Kramnik, Leuven 2016. Answers to me at The Spectator by…
Empty words
In Competition No. 2977 you were invited to submit a selection of meaningless, pseudo-profound statements. Bullshit was defined in a…
2290: Timely II
Clockwise round the grid from 11 run three trios (8,4,6,5,9,3,5,8,4), each trio combining to suggest the same word. A trio…
to 2288: Housey-housey
Unclued lights are names of PARLIAMENTS. First prize Judith Bevis, NewportRunners-up Hilda Ball, Belfast; Michael Grocott, Loughborough Got something to…
Harry, Jeffrey and Benoit
I first ate at the London version of Harry’s Bar in the early 1990s. Back then, Jeffrey Archer and I…
High life
What a great year this has been, what a good mood I’m in, why, it’s almost like being in love.…
Long life
New Year’s Day is the most depressing of holidays. It doesn’t celebrate anyone or anything worth celebrating. It simply marks…
Low life
I drew back the curtains. Yet another absolutely still, sunny day. Early-morning mist lying in the valleys. An echoing report…
Uh-oh
Here are the first 50 words in the order that they were learnt by a child called Will: 1 uh-oh;…
Real life
What a fraught, divisive, infuriating sort of year it’s been. It started with me attempting to go on a blind…
