Life
2176: ,
The unclued lights (one hyphened, one of two words), individually or as four pairs, are of a kind. Across…
to 2173: Men of note
The unclued lights are COMPOSERS whose surnames start with the letter C. First prize C.R. Haigh, Hassocks, West Sussex…
The self-delusion that makes people go to festivals – me included
I wouldn’t describe myself as a veteran of the summer festival circuit, but I’ve been to enough to have a…
The battle for Britain
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What does Duncan Fletcher actually do?
Some years ago, when the last Conservative government was limping towards defeat, someone published a book called 101 Uses for…
Dear Mary: Show me the tactful way to pay for a lift
Q. My neighbour is really lovely and always helps me chainsaw trees. He used to be the herdsman at the…
Rhubarb has the loveliest, craziest dining room I have ever seen
The Edinburgh Fringe Festival: the city is full of glassy-eyed narcissists eating haggis pizza off flyers that say Michael Gove:…
What’s humanitarian about a humanitarian crisis?
‘Our first priority,’ David Cameron said this week, ‘has of course been to deal with the acute humanitarian crisis in…
Escaping the Fringe
The Edinburgh Fringe Festival: the city is full of glassy-eyed narcissists eating haggis pizza off flyers that say Michael Gove:…
Putting Fletcher in the shades
Some years ago, when the last Conservative government was limping towards defeat, someone published a book called 101 Uses for…
Girl power
Mrs Oakley returned from her latest book club with an uplifting story. The Mother Superior of an Irish convent was…
How dare they sell the beaches where I played as a child
Porto Cheli Nothing is moving, not a twig nor a leaf, and I find myself missing the cows, the mountains…
A road trip in the company of Long John Silver and an exciting pair of thighs
I live in south Devon. Last week I went up to north Devon, to visit a friend who was renting…
The pleasures of being a boring old unmarried couple
The problem with not getting married, I am increasingly realising, is that you cannot get divorced. There is no mechanism…
The word ‘holiday’ has become a political taboo
It’s August in Tuscany, and the market towns are eerily quiet, presumably because most of their inhabitants are off on…
Bridge
Some bridge hands are so sad that they make you want to cry. At least, that’s how my friend Lou…
Olympiad
The Tromsø Olympiad finishes on Thursday 14 August, too late for any definitive conclusions to be drawn here as to…
no. 327
White to play. This is from Kasimdzhanov–Kramnik, Tromsø Olympiad 2014. How did White blast through? Answers to me at The…
Pet sounds
In Competition No. 2860 you were invited to submit a short ode on the death of a pet in unusual…
2175: Elated grunt
Across unclued lights combine with down ones to form anagrams of the titles (one of two words) of four works…
Solution to 2172: Para
Gerry Goffin, popular LYRICIST (40), died on 19 June 2014. He wrote the perimetric songs IT MIGHT AS WELL RAIN…
Mark Simmonds was just saying what a lot of MPs think
I feel some sympathy for Mark Simmonds, the Conservative MP who’s resigned as a minister and is stepping down at…
Battle for Britain
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How oneupmanship wrecks things for everyone
‘There’s a little bit of a fascist in all of us. For some, the tragedy of human want may provoke…
Dear Mary: What do we do with a teenage guest who hogs the bathroom?
Q. We have taken a flat in Edinburgh for a month and a young girl, temporarily homeless and a friend…
