Life
Claret’s class war
Claret has a commercial advantage over Burgundy. Thanks to the grandes lignes of châteaux and vintages, you know where you…
Dirty rotten scoundrels
In one of those old Mae West films a girl admires her friend’s jewellery: ‘Goodness, what lovely pearls,’ only to…
More Grand Theft Auto, less crime
It was about a week ago, at 8 p.m., when our blackout happened. In the 1980s people would have headed…
Taki: The joke that made me like Mike Tyson
New York Nature is at her best right now, the leaves still holding, Central Park awash in golden browns…
Jeremy Clarke: I'm a fake. The cannabis tells me so
Can it be that the one single agreeable thing about getting old is that one loses one’s pot paranoia? No.…
Melissa Kite: My journey to despair with Lambeth's bin men
Everything is a journey now, especially if it involves failure. The X Factor rejects, people having disasters as they build…
Alexander Chancellor: A slice of Italy in Milton Keynes
Back home from a week in Italy, I almost feel that I haven’t left. For I go almost at once…
Bridge
‘Yikes! I’ve been Grosvenored!’ This is a wail you will hear from time to time when a Declarer has been…
Song of Norway
Magnus Carlsen has become the 16th world chess champion, taking the title with three wins, seven draws and no losses,…
No. 294
White to play. This position is a variation from Anand-Carlsen, Chennai (Game 9). White is on the verge of delivering…
Picture this
In Competition 2825 you were invited to supply a poem for a well-known painting of your choice. The poet and…
2141: Megacant
The unclued lights (all but two of two words) are of a kind, listed in Chambers 2011. Elsewhere, ignore one…
to 2138: Hundred centimes
The unclued Across lights are words abbreviated by C (= 100) and the unclued Down lights are abbreviated by c…
Toby Young: Why I'm not going to be an MP
Damn and blast. I was quite keen on becoming the Conservative candidate for Hammersmith, but the timing isn’t going to…
Dave
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As England's cricketers wobble, the rugby team are finally getting it together
My friend Miles was bowling in a festival of wandering cricket clubs in Oxford the other day. First wicket down…
Dear Mary: How can I tell my mother-in-law she's being mean?
Q. My egregious mother-in-law turns 80 this December. She is not short of a bob but for one of my…
Tanya Gold: Eating in the lobby at Canary Wharf
One Canada Square was the original glass house in east London’s Gotham City, a thrilling tower with a flashing pyramid…
Dot Wordsworth: Don't call him Revd Flowers!
‘Here,’ said my husband, chucking a folded-back copy of the Daily Telegraph to me, ‘this’ll interest you.’ For once he…
The restaurant lobby
One Canada Square was the original glass house in east London’s Gotham City, a thrilling tower with a flashing pyramid…
England learn their lesson
My friend Miles was bowling in a festival of wandering cricket clubs in Oxford the other day. First wicket down…
Taki: in defence of my friend Alec Baldwin
You know you’re old when people start writing kindly about you. Especially when they are colleagues. First Jeremy Clarke, now…
Low life
The beer garden at the back of the pub was empty, save one woman sitting alone at a table contemplating…
Melissa Kite: I really didn't mean what I said to my boyfriend while he was in the bath
The builder boyfriend and I have had a terrible row. In the heat of the moment, I said something truly…
Alexander Chancellor: What Pope Francis and Silvio Berlusconi have in common
It’s filthy wet weather in Tuscany, so I’m lying on my bed in the afternoon reading through the Italian newspapers.…
