Life
Redecorate the restaurant, but you can’t redecorate the clientele
Forty-five Jermyn St lives in the left-hand buttock of Fortnum & Mason (F&M), a shop whose acronym is slightly too…
High life
Those who forget the pasta are condemned to reheat it, tweeted Jon Ronson, a man I’d never heard of until…
Long life
It is hardly uncommon for politicians to lie, especially when their careers are threatened by a sexual transgression — John…
Long life
It is hardly uncommon for politicians to lie, especially when their careers are threatened by a sexual transgression — John…
Low life
My sister has a new man in her life: Henry, 60. He lives in a gay hotel. Or rather, it…
Low life
My sister has a new man in her life: Henry, 60. He lives in a gay hotel. Or rather, it…
Is ‘female’ still an insult?
‘More deadly than the male,’ said my husband archly. He was knowingly quoting Kipling, though I don’t know why he…
Real life
By the time you read this I will have delivered my long-awaited speech to the World Horse Welfare annual conference…
Seb Coe is a fine man… but his roasting over the Russian athletics scandal is justified
So Smiley was right all along: the bloody Russians were the baddest of the bad. The Pound report on the…
Meet Leo, the youngest member of our household
I’m pleased to announce an addition to the Young household — a ten-week-old Vizsla. For those unfamiliar with this particular breed…
Meet Leo, the youngest member of our household
I’m pleased to announce an addition to the Young household — a ten-week-old Vizsla. For those unfamiliar with this particular breed…
Triumphant Twelve
Three personalities dominated the Flat season: Gosden, Dettori and Golden Horn. Victories for the trio in the Derby, the Irish…
Triumphant Twelve
Three personalities dominated the Flat season: Gosden, Dettori and Golden Horn. Victories for the trio in the Derby, the Irish…
Bridge
The EBU’s Premier League takes place over three weekends and decides who will represent England in next year’s Camrose (home…
How New York vulgarians live
I have finally moved into my new flat, a jewel of a place in a pre-first world war Park Avenue…
What it takes to make Exmouth rock out
She was dying for a mad night out, she said, so where was I going to take her? I know,…
Puppy parents’ evening — or money for old rope
A letter has arrived summoning me to parents’ evening to discuss Cydney’s progress. Yes, I am aware that Cydney is…
New Orleans is being reborn (without its Confederate statues)
The last time I was in New Orleans was during the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico when…
Bridge
Congratulations to my old pal Lou Hobhouse, who has just been appointed the new editor of the English Bridge Union…
Winter of discontent
The two great Soviet world champion Russians, Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov, have almost always taken divergent paths. Karpov was…
No. 386
White to play. This is from Kasparov-Karpov, London/Leningrad (Game 16). Kasparov saw this conclusion many moves in advance. White would…
Fashion
In Competition No. 2922 you were invited to invent new garments and provide definitions. Thanks to the reader who, inspired…
2236: Alphabetical jigsaw
This week’s puzzle breaks away from the traditional thematic puzzle. Instead, here is an alphabetical jigsaw for solvers to tackle.…
To 2233: Clutching at straws!
The unclued lights are CHEESES. First prize M. Taylor, Eskbank, Midlothian Runners-up D.G. Page, Orpington, Kent; Katherine Griffin, Winchester, Hants…
Nature beats nurture nearly every time
I’ve been doing some thinking recently about the findings of behavioural geneticists and their implications for education policy. For instance,…
