Life
Character study
Will Lyons, a delightful companion, is not only a friend of mine. He has one of the finest palates in…
The problem with grammar schools
By rights, I should be one of those Tories who is passionately in favour of grammar schools. After all, I…
Battle for Britain
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Surreptitious subversion
After the vote to leave the EU it is time to reclaim the good old English names for traditional openings…
no. 421
White to play. This position is from Steinitz–Chigorin, World Championship (Game 4), Havana 1892. How did White finish off? Answers…
Summertime
In Competition No. 2960 you were invited to submit a poem on the theme of summer in which the last…
Dear Mary
Q. I live in Balham but work in Mayfair. Twice recently I have had to take whole days off work…
Character study
Will Lyons, a delightful companion, is not only a friend of mine. He has one of the finest palates in…
High life
Gstaad ‘He flies through the air with the greatest of ease, that daring young man on the flying trapeze.’…
Long life
A hoo-ha has broken out in the city of Oryol, south-west of Moscow, over a proposal by the officials there…
Long life
A hoo-ha has broken out in the city of Oryol, south-west of Moscow, over a proposal by the officials there…
Low life
At 11 p.m. I sneaked away from my boy’s wedding party to my ground-floor accommodation in the hotel to write…
Low life
At 11 p.m. I sneaked away from my boy’s wedding party to my ground-floor accommodation in the hotel to write…
Honorificabilitudinity
My husband told me with glee that Nicholas Byfield had a great big stone ‘like flint’ in his bladder, weighing…
Real life
The builder boyfriend colicked for a week after eating a falafel kebab as he and I sat up all night…
The problem with grammar schools
By rights, I should be one of those Tories who is passionately in favour of grammar schools. After all, I…
The problem with grammar schools
By rights, I should be one of those Tories who is passionately in favour of grammar schools. After all, I…
When more data makes you more wrong
In a one-day international against Australia last year, Ben Stokes was dismissed for ‘obstructing the field’, a rule rarely invoked…
Bridge
Here’s a bridge tip you won’t find in a book — one which the wonderful Gunnar Hallberg gave me. You’re…
Real life
One look at Grace when I went to get her in from the field, and I knew she had eaten…
A gold standard of cheating
With the Olympics almost upon us our thoughts turn inexorably to the art of cheating. And while we should deplore…
Dear Mary
Q. David and Samantha Cameron, their family and two armed policemen have moved to the house opposite us. Do you…
May day
In Competition No. 2959 you were invited to submit a poem on a political theme entitled ‘May day’. There was…
Dustcart
Are we seeing the end of dustcarts? I don’t mean that those noisy, noisome vehicles will cease roaring at the…
From cosy to crazy
I spent last weekend at Port Eliot in Cornwall, the only summer festival I’d pay to attend. Indeed, I ended…
