Life
Wild life
Kenya I perused the brochure produced by Tanzania’s state corporation for livestock ranching, aimed at attracting foreign investors. Under ‘beef…
The battle for decency has been lost
An intelligent letter from a reader, Stanislas Yassukovich CBE, warms my heart. It’s nice to know there are others as…
The karmic rewards of becoming a vegetarian
‘Is that you, Sister?’ It was Tom misdialling again with those thick, stubby fingers of his. ‘No, it’s me: Jerry,’…
I tried to escape the confines of Balham in Oxshott
My London flat now has so little space in it I’ve begun storing stuff at the dry cleaners. Back in…
Here’s how to remain cheerful in the face of such a multitude of scares
I don’t think I can remember a time when there have been so many scares about. They come at us…
My first Arc de Triomph was a triumph
Aboard our coach from Rouen to Paris for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe our lady guide put it succinctly:…
Bridge
The EBU’s Premier League is upon us again, the pain of relegation ever-present as my team battles it out in…
Tigran Tigran
Tigran Petrosian seized the world championship from Mikhail Botvinnik in 1963, defended the title against Boris Spassky in 1966 and…
No. 336
White to play. This is from Petrosian-Rosetto, Portoroz 1958. White’s knight is threatened and appears to lack a safe escape…
Spooner verse
In Competition No. 2869 you were invited to submit a poem on any theme as it might have been written…
2184: Airline
Nine unclued lights each contain a different 20 from the same source. The title suggests a further such 20. Elsewhere,…
To 2181: Obit II
The END (19) of Rameau, a great COMPOSER (1A) of OPERAS (6) and for the CLAVECIN (1D), occurred in PARIS…
I nearly missed out on The Walking Dead. You shouldn’t
I’m ashamed to say it took me a while to watch an episode of The Walking Dead, the fifth season…
Battle for Britain
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Pietersen’s unlikely Passage to India
A typical Merchant-Ivory film, their biography informs me, features ‘genteel characters’ whose lives are blighted by ‘disillusionment and tragic entanglements’.…
Dear Mary: Can I ask for a lift on my friend’s private jet?
Q. We have moved to the country and my husband often prefers me to drive — not because he wants to…
Gymkhana is morally disgusting – and fortunately the food’s disgusting too
Gymkhana is a fashionable Indian restaurant in Albemarle Street. It was, according to its natty website, ‘inspired by Colonial Indian…
What’s good for the goose is bad for the proverb
‘Goosey, goosey gander,’ my husband shouted at the television, like someone from Gogglebox. It’s not so much that he thinks…
Colonial cringe
Gymkhana is a fashionable Indian restaurant in Albemarle Street. It was, according to its natty website, ‘inspired by Colonial Indian…
Pietersen’s unlikely Passage to India
A typical Merchant-Ivory film, their biography informs me, features ‘genteel characters’ whose lives are blighted by ‘disillusionment and tragic entanglements’.…
Treve triumphant
Aboard our coach from Rouen to Paris for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe our lady guide put it succinctly:…
We're still repeating the mistakes of the first world war
The time-honoured saying that England’s great battles have been won on the playing fields of Eton is a lot of…
Karl Miller called me his ‘great white hope’. I failed him, of course
As I think I said in this column the other week, I used to sneak into English lectures at University…
Is New York ready for Cydney the spaniel (and her Facebook friends)?
As the maître d’ ushered me into the packed restaurant, I leaned in close and intoned softly, so as not…
Cooking I find easy and satisfying. Preparing microwave dinners, on the other hand...
When some years ago I stopped having to go to an office, mainly because nobody wanted me to go to…
