Life
The changing meaning of 'prolific', from Orwell to the Premier League
I read somewhere recently of a Soho artist who was a ‘prolific drinker’. The meaning is clear, but hasn’t the…
Burgundian battles
There is only one answer to the question ‘Burgundy or claret?’ ‘Yes, but never in the same glass.’ Yet I…
Reputations at stake
‘J’ai failli attendre’ — ‘I almost had to wait’ — allegedly said by Louis XIV when his carriage drew up just a…
Wild life
Hell’s Kitchen My ambition to open a fish and chip shop in Mogadishu has not happened yet, though I remain…
The missed New Year opportunities I would have rowed the Atlantic for
Gstaad The very end of 2014 laid an egg, and an expensive one at that. I missed David Tang’s bash…
The joys of home and hearth and hot lemon
Over Christmas and New Year I was rotten with flu and didn’t go out once. I stayed soberly at home…
Rule number one for horse-owners: every accident that happens to a horse is a freak accident
Every accident that happens to a horse is a freak accident. Rule number one. Once you grasp that as a…
Here I am on Twelfth Night with nothing but benevolence to look back on
For the past two and a half years my brother John has been living next door to me in the…
Venetia Williams: an enigmatic woman who trains winners
Welsh Grand National day at Chepstow could not have had a better climax than the big race. After slogging three…
Bridge
The last tournament of the year is the hugely popular one-day Swiss Teams in the EBU’s Year End Congress in…
London Classic
The key feature of the London Classic, which finished shortly before Christmas, was the resurgence of Viswanathan Anand, the former…
No. 344
White to play. This is a position from Adams–Caruana, London Classic 2014. How did Adams convert to a winning endgame?…
Rehabilitation
In Competition No. 2879 you were invited to follow in the footsteps of Hilary Mantel and provide a scene that…
2193: Celebration II
Clockwise round the grid from 31 run the titles of four works (6,3,5,7,5.1,5,7,8,5) associated with a 21 and 25A born…
To 2191: Bunk
Ambrose Bierce defined history as an account, mostly false, of events, mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers, mostly…
The misguided bid to turn Alan Turing into an Asperger’s martyr
When I first heard the story of Alan Turing in my late teens I made what must be quite a…
Battle for Britain
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The myth of Steven Gerrard
‘As a leader and a man, he is incomparable to anyone I have ever worked with.’ Obviously quite some guy,…
Dear Mary: How will Joan Collins introduce herself now she’s a dame?
Q. We enjoyed the Christmas University Challenge series featuring mature graduates, some of whom were more in the public eye than…
The real reason there’s a queue outside the Cereal Killer Café
The Cereal Killer Café is a temple to cereal on Brick Lane, east London. It serves only cereal — and also…
What parenting meant in 1914
‘Not still War and Peace!’ exclaimed my husband on 1 January during the all-day Tolstoy splurge on Radio 4. In reality…
Sugar rush
The Cereal Killer Café is a temple to cereal on Brick Lane, east London. It serves only cereal — and also…
Myths and legends
‘As a leader and a man, he is incomparable to anyone I have ever worked with.’ Obviously quite some guy,…
Conquering Emperor
Welsh Grand National day at Chepstow could not have had a better climax than the big race. After slogging three…
Warning: these books could seriously damage your health
Welcome to 2015, the year that speaking and writing freely had to stop. Anything that might cause trauma to anyone…
