Life
Battle for Britain
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Polymath
I learn from The Problemist, the organ of the British Chess Problem Society, that the polymath Dr Jacob Bronowski also…
No. 357
Black to play. This is from Cochrane-Staunton, London 1842. How did Staunton exploit his menacing build up of pieces on…
Consequences
In Competition No. 2892 you were invited to submit an irregular quatrain in which you bring together two people from…
Dear Mary
Q. For ten years, I have made a reasonable freelance income working from home. During this time my husband has…
A rum encounter
For many years, the Central American republic of Guatemala had a grievance against the United Kingdom. It claimed sovereignty over…
High life
Ah, spring! The spring of our frostbitten age. At the Polish Club in London, a wonderful place studded with portraits…
Pious
Married to a public-school man (I almost said boy) for many a long year, I can’t bring myself to disqualify…
Miliband vs Millwall
I’ve been trying to think of a good football analogy to describe the battle between the two main parties as…
Miliband vs Millwall
I’ve been trying to think of a good football analogy to describe the battle between the two main parties as…
Why plane crashes are getting weirder
In the late 1980s, the parks service in the United States were concerned about the deterioration of the stonework on…
Even a perfect opera such as Don Giovanni improves with a good red
End of season is always bittersweet, the melting snows a bit like autumn leaves. But the days are longer and…
One day the Condor and the Eagle will fly wing-tip to wing-tip
The pub was disappointingly empty, so I took my first pint of the evening upstairs, where some sort of New…
Farewell, Cobham — oh flat, boring, lovely Cobham; hello, Dorking
Farewell then, Cobham. You were the place I ran to when the metropolis became too much, and urban life overwhelmed…
The fox that killed my chickens depressed me more than 250,000 tsunami deaths
It is hard to know how a tragedy is going to move a person who is not directly affected by…
Who will fund a prize for the true fighter pilots of the Turf?
After listening to a violinist’s justification of his playing, Dr Samuel Johnson responded tartly: ‘Difficult do you call it, Sir?…
Bridge
Wednesday night is league night. Sacrosanct. I’ve missed only one in seven years and that was when my daughter was…
Yawn
In Competition No. 2891 you were invited to think of the most boring lecture topic possible and submit an extract…
2205: In shape
The unclued lights (including one of three words, one of two words, and one hyphened) form two thematic groups in…
To 2202: Problem XI
Seven unclued lights are ANAGRAMS (23) of numbers. 2 (7A) + 11 (17) + 10 (40) + 16 (5) +…
Lefty myths about inequality
As a Tory, I’ve been thinking a lot about inequality recently. Has it really increased in the past five years?…
Battle for Britain
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Rory McIlroy and the grandest prize in golf
The grand slam in golf is a feat almost impossible to imagine now. It meant winning all four golfing majors…
Dear Mary: How I can I avoid being invited to any more country house weekends?
Q. Someone I was at university with but hadn’t seen much of over the ten years since invited me to…
From Russia with love
In the James Bond film From Russia with Love there is an evil mastermind named Kronsteen. The character is in…
