Life
Low life
My mother is a bore magnet. They travel from miles around to sit in the chair opposite hers and tell…
Low life
My mother is a bore magnet. They travel from miles around to sit in the chair opposite hers and tell…
They
‘When I asked the bank,’ said my husband, ‘they were no help at all.’ My attention was distracted from his…
Real life
‘How was your week?’ I asked my friend as we rode our horses to Bookham Common. ‘Fine,’ she said. ‘Except…
Snowflakes in the workplace
Last week I was asked to give a talk about generation snowflake. This was at a breakfast organised by a…
Snowflakes in the workplace
Last week I was asked to give a talk about generation snowflake. This was at a breakfast organised by a…
Scandals that make you switch off
Do any of us honestly have any idea how serious the Hillary Clinton email scandal was? I haven’t got a…
Bridge
It was the best hand I’d had all year — and what’s more, I picked it up while playing rubber…
The Battle for Britain
The post The Battle for Britain appeared first on The Spectator. Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment…
Bridge
When I first started playing bridge, in the late Nineties, the Young Chelsea marathon was a continuous 24-hour tournament and…
no. 436
White to play. This is from Karjakin-Carlsen, World Championship, New York (Game 7) 2016. This position will be dead equal…
Changing fashions
In Competition No. 2975 you were invited to supply your own nine-line twist on Robert Herrick’s ‘Upon Julia’s clothes’: …
2288: Housey-housey
The unclued lights (ignore two apostrophes and an umlaut) are of a kind, as verified in Brewer. Across 1 …
to 2285: Characterful
The theme word was China, the Mandarin Chinese word for which is Zhongguo (the pinyin transliteration of 中国). Unclued lights…
Dear Mary
Last week I went for an interview with the Irish Guards. My father and his father were both in this…
Meat and greet
Zelman Meats — catchphrase ‘great meat’ — is sustenance for a hard Brexit — a harder Brexit, if you will.…
Long life
Do you remember Liberace? Yes, of course you do. Who could forget him? The Wisconsin-born son of a poor Italian…
Low life
Six months ago I bought a garden chair on eBay. When I went to the address to pick it up,…
Coulrophobia
There’s something suspicious about the name for a fear of clowns which was on the shortlist of words of the…
Real life
A few weeks after switching my iPhone to the EE network, I noticed a funny thing. It hadn’t rung. I…
Abandon dope, all ye who enter here
The World Anti-Doping Agency has just called on Russia to confront its wrongdoing and generally shape up. Well, good luck…
My ticket to a £150 rip-off
Last week, my 13-year-old daughter Sasha and her friend Tess were taken by her god-father, Sean, to see Catfish and…
The turf
Talking to Paul Nicholls earlier this season, I was shaken to hear the ultra-competitive champion trainer say that he wouldn’t…
Willing to wound
But yet afraid to strike, as Alexander Pope would doubtless have described the first seven games of the World Championship…
High life
New York If only my wordsmith friend Jeremy Clarke had been with me. What fun he’d have had with…
