Life
Dear Mary: Is there a tactful way to shorten the guest list for my 21st?
Q. I am organising my 21st birthday party at our family house in Italy. It is a fantastic location, but…
Want to shake hands with your dinner? Beast is your kind of restaurant
Beast is next to Debenhams on Oxford Street and it is not conventionally beast-like; rather it is monetised and bespoke…
Why you might not want corridors in your historical novel
I read C.J. Sansom’s novel Dissolution on the train recently with pleasure. For an historical novel narrated in the 1530s,…
Dining with death
Beast is next to Debenhams on Oxford Street and it is not conventionally beast-like; rather it is monetised and bespoke…
Is Test cricket heading for its last innings?
Lions and weasels The Archers and Test cricket: words you rarely find in the same sentence and more’s the pity…
Second best
The novelist Anita Brookner once declared that in real life hares always beat tortoises: ‘Every time. Look around you. And…
My fury at Fury, a film only a vampire could love
I have always believed that the mission of most movies made after the Fred & Ginger era has been to…
Hello trees, hello sky, hello armoured riot police
What a beautiful day, I thought, as I nodded to the porter in the bowler hat and stepped out of…
Oh no. Where is my iPhone taking me?
After four hours of driving, we should have been in the middle of Dartmoor. And yet we were not. We…
If you don’t like this stupid survey, there’ll be a contradictory one along in a minute
Perhaps it is because newspapers are going through such hard times that they fill their pages with items that cost…
What happened when I tried to buy back my father’s farm
Kenya I perused the brochure produced by Tanzania’s state corporation for livestock ranching, aimed at attracting foreign investors. Under ‘beef…
Bridge
Forget the 5-2 diet. To lose weight the easy way, why not take up competitive bridge? I’ve just come back…
Baku beyond
The irrepressible Fabiano Caruana has added to his laurels by sharing first prize in the Baku Grand Prix, which finished…
No. 337
White to play. This position is from Gelfand-Andreikin, Baku 2014. What is White’s best move? Answers to me at The…
Autumn villanelle
In Competition No. 2870 you were invited to submit an autumn villanelle. Stephen Fry likes villanelles. The form inspired him…
2185: Over the sea — and bridge
Two unclued lights describe the location of the others, individually or as a pair. One of these unclued lights does…
To 2182: Tops
The unclued lights are ROMAN CROWNS. First prize Philip Hawkins, Wirksworth, Matlock, Derbyshire Runners-up G.H.Willetts, London SW19; Chris Edwards, Pudsey,…
Russell Brand and Nigel Farage remind me of myself five years ago
I’m often asked by other free school proposers what lessons I’ve learnt over the past five years. Any pearls of…
Battle for Britain
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The best navigation idea I’ve seen since the Tube map
I stopped using London buses when some coward put doors on them. Twenty years ago, you could board any bus…
Dear Mary: Learning to love a man who whistles through his nose
Q. What can you do when disorganised friends say they would love to come to a concert with you but…
The secret kinship of good wine and good cricket
A high proportion of wine-lovers also enjoy cricket, and vice versa. This might seem natural. Anyone with an aesthetic temperament…
How Ebola got its name
It should perhaps be called Yambuku fever, since that was the village in Zaire (as it was then, now the…
The willow and the vine
A high proportion of wine-lovers also enjoy cricket, and vice versa. This might seem natural. Anyone with an aesthetic temperament…
Putting words on the map
I stopped using London buses when some coward put doors on them. Twenty years ago, you could board any bus…
