Life
Hard-boiled Blyton
In Competition 2834 you were invited to submit an extract from a classic of children’s literature rewritten in the style…
2149: Super!
Each of the unclued lights (one of two words and one of three) can be preceded by the same word…
Solution to 2146: 4 ÷ 4 = 8
One 4-letter word is to be placed in the middle of another to yield an 8-letter solution: 6 ÷ 19…
Oh no. Have I let my children have too much self-esteem?
Two new books have been published recently on the thorny issue of social mobility, one optimistic, suggesting various things parents…
Battle for Britain
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Will self-driving cars know what to do in the middle lane?
I am convinced that when I took my driving test in 1983 I was asked by the examiner, ‘What lane…
Dear Mary: What do I do now I haven’t sent a thank-you letter?
Q. Over New Year I stayed with a man who combines being a generous and exciting host with a punctilious…
A spirit to warm Bruegel’s ‘Hunters in the Snow’
The ostensible subject matter is misleading, as is any conflation with his lesser relatives’ wassailing peasants and roistering village squares.…
A learned poet's mystifying mistakes
I enjoy Poetry Please, but was shouting mildly at the wireless the other day when a northern woman poet was…
Spirits of Bruegel
The ostensible subject matter is misleading, as is any conflation with his lesser relatives’ wassailing peasants and roistering village squares.…
Wild life
Laikipia ‘I am old and cannot work again,’ said Celestino. ‘But you are 46 and we have many years to…
A mystery in the middle lane
I am convinced that when I took my driving test in 1983 I was asked by the examiner, ‘What lane…
My last dance saloon
Gstaad A heavy snowfall diverted 40-odd private jets from landing in Saanen airport, thus the one per cent of the…
Rolling back the years in a stretched Hummer
My first ride in a stretch Hummer. I haven’t lived, I now realise. The prodigious, ridiculous thing, tricked out in…
Finding a job for my cocker spaniel
Seeing a poodle on the London Underground wearing a red vest with the words ‘Diabetes Medical Dog’ has given me…
Local protests don't stop windfarms. Subsidy cuts do
Here in the valley of the River Tove in south Northamptonshire my chickens are laying copiously, my ducks are quacking…
Women simply don't understand sport's importance
Liverpool manager Bill Shankly was once challenged with the story that for their wedding anniversary treat he had taken his…
Bridge
January ended for me with the annual Icelandic Bridge Festival in Reykjavik. There may be a better tournament but I…
Lions’ den
Daniel Johnson, the distinguished editor of Standpoint magazine, can be bracketed with Tim Congdon and Dominic Lawson, as having had…
No. 300
White to play. This is from Johnson-Finch, Marlow 1974. White is building up a strong attack on the kingside and…
Dear diary
In Competition 2833 you were invited to submit an extract from the adolescent diary of a well-known public figure, living…
2148: Eighth of February
Unclued lights (including two of two words and an accent to be ignored) can be expressed in such a way…
to 2145: Two in a row
Each pair consists of two in a ‘row’ in a variety of meanings. PURL (14) & PLAIN (25) (line of…
My battle with Michael Gove’s Blob
Michael Gove has been under fire this week for ‘sacking’ Sally Morgan as chair of Ofsted. You’d think he’d be…
Battle for Britain
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