Life
Long life
This is an uplifting story of survival with which to usher in the New Year. At Stoke Park, my home…
Low life
The new year was two hours young. My boy and I were side by side on a row of three…
Low life
The new year was two hours young. My boy and I were side by side on a row of three…
Chattering classes
When the much missed Frank Johnson (1943–2006), once editor of The Spectator, wrote in 1980 that ‘the peculiar need for…
Real life
‘Start at the back and try to pass as many horses as you can,’ said the trainer, as we stepped…
Add Ben Stokes to the world’s greatest batsmen
On Sunday morning a friend texted: ‘You watching the big bash, or the domestic stuff down in Australia?’ On one…
The left’s war on science
How much longer can the liberal left survive in the face of growing scientific evidence that many of its core…
The left’s war on science
How much longer can the liberal left survive in the face of growing scientific evidence that many of its core…
North-south divide
The well-bred Sea Pigeon, who had finished seventh in the Derby when trained at Beckhampton by Jeremy Tree, was later…
North-south divide
The well-bred Sea Pigeon, who had finished seventh in the Derby when trained at Beckhampton by Jeremy Tree, was later…
Bridge
Call me nuts but on 29 December I left lovely, sunny, delicious France for the fairly unlovely Royal National Hotel…
2016 will be a vintage year for tech billionaires and jihadis
This is going to be one hell of a year, hell being the operative word. It will be the year…
My 2015 pharmacopoeia: ecstasy, decapepyl, abiraterone, tamsulosin, cocaine...
For me, last year started with an appalling whitey outside a pub after swallowing a second ecstasy tablet because I…
The left-wing lunacy of Tooting Honey Toilets
‘Sadly, the world is filled with apathy,’ said my friend, as we looked at our sad little list of conscripts…
Mark Zuckerberg should be applauded — whatever his motive
The Egyptian driver of a London minicab said almost nothing during our journey but dropped me off at my destination…
Bridge
This might be the most beautiful hand I’ve ever seen. I came across it while reading one of the old…
Banking on chess
As the new year begins, I pay a final tribute to the city financier Jim Slater, who did so much to…
Chess puzzle
Black to play. This position is from Wright-Keene, Slater Tournament, Southend 1968. Black’s next move destroyed the white kingside and…
No thanks
In Competition No. 2928 you were invited to submit a thank-you letter for a particularly unenjoyable Christmas visit to relatives…
2241: Customary
The unclued lights, (two of two words), individually or as two pairs, are of a kind, verifiable in Brewer 19th…
To 2239: ITOIX
The unclued lights include the words ONE to NINE which had to be entered as figures 1 to 9 in…
The plot to save Goldsmith’s Close Allotments
Since turning 50 I have become a gardening enthusiast. It started with tomatoes, then spread to raspberries and last year…
Battle for Britain
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There are things we don’t mind paying for – and things we do
Here’s a challenge for film buffs: can anyone remember, from the entire canon of cinema and television, a single scene…
Dear Mary: On a troublesome festive invitation
I have been alone in the country this festive season as my adult children and most of my friends are…
