Life
Off colour
In Competition No. 2903 you were invited to provide an extract from an article in an interiors magazine featuring some…
Your problems solved
Q. My partner, a leading political commentator on a national newspaper, recently agreed to shave off his hair at the…
Myths and legends
The Ivy is a Playmobil-style faux-medieval restaurant in a triangular building opposite The Mousetrap; of the two, The Ivy is…
High life
Last Wednesday, 24 June, Pugs held a luncheon in honour of our first member to depart for the Elysian Fields,…
Long life
It is nearly two years since the police were granted new powers to fine motorists for ‘hogging’ the middle lane…
Long life
It is nearly two years since the police were granted new powers to fine motorists for ‘hogging’ the middle lane…
Low life
Ninety-two readers (thank you!) sent accounts of their worst debacles on drink or drugs. I printed out each one and…
Low life
Ninety-two readers (thank you!) sent accounts of their worst debacles on drink or drugs. I printed out each one and…
On the cusp
‘A stalker who dressed a pillow “mannequin” in his ex’s nurse’s uniform, then sent her a picture, has been told…
Real life
Why won’t the middle classes shout at their dogs any more? My suspicion is that the bleeding heart liberals, having…
Tiger, Tiger, burning out
A car crash is a terrible thing, but hordes of people still slow down to cop an eyeful on the…
In defence of Gove’s grammar
Listen http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/angelamerkel-sburden/media.mp3 Few things are more likely to provoke the disapproval of the bien-pensant left than criticising someone’s grammar. The…
In defence of Gove’s grammar
Listen http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/angelamerkel-sburden/media.mp3 Few things are more likely to provoke the disapproval of the bien-pensant left than criticising someone’s grammar. The…
Simply the best
Nothing pleases the Royal Ascot crowd more than a winner for the meeting’s crucial supporter, the Queen. Imagine, then, the…
The subject of immigration has become a means of entrapment
When I founded the American Conservative 13 years ago — the purpose being to shine a light on the neocon…
The vicar struck the first blow. And then he told us all a joke
Before delivering his sermon, the vicar said we must offer one another the sign of peace. He struck the first…
The police persecution of middle-class women
Aren’t the police getting younger nowadays — and ruder, and scruffier and more intolerant of middle-class women? In other words,…
Alan Rusbridger’s final oath
My friend Alan Rusbridger has just given up editing the Guardian after a distinguished 20-year reign that has climaxed, as…
The Shrewsbury School Hunt very nearly killed me
Laikipia, Kenya Out cross-country running on the farm in Kenya recently, I came face-to-face with a gang of bull…
Bridge
Captaining a bridge team in a knock-out competition can be a thankless task. Sometimes, the hardest thing of all is…
Dark lord
A new book, Opening Repertoire: The Nimzo-Indian and Bogo-Indian by Christof Seilecki (Everyman Chess), focuses on the ever popular Nimzo-Indian…
No. 367
Black to play. This is from Spassky-Fischer, World Championship, Reykjavik (Game 5) 1972. This is probably the most famous ‘dark-square’…
Howzat!
In Competition No. 2903 you were invited to supply a poem incorporating a dozen cricketing terms. English poets love cricket:…
2216: Riddle
Two clues are without definitions; their answers form the name of a person with a leading part in four works…
To 2213: Surprising
The unclued Down lights are books, entered in reverse as indicated by the phrase TURN-UP FOR THE BOOKS (1A 27…