Life
Five reasons to be cheerful about British sport (yes, even the cricket)
James Cook’s third voyage as an English captain ended in disaster, stabbed to death and disembowelled by a pack of…
Dear Mary: How can I hide my tattoo from the in-laws?
Q. I have a tattoo the length of my forearm and am worried it will alienate my new boyfriend’s parents…
The 1980s relics of Langan's Brasserie
Langan’s Brasserie announces its presence with a long, pink neon line of Langanses, tootling prettily along its façade, which is…
Challenging 'challenging'
‘Pistols at dawn,’ said my husband, flapping a pair of Marigold rubber gloves from the other side of the kitchen. ‘I don’t…
Dining with relics
Langan’s Brasserie announces its presence with a long, pink neon line of Langanses, tootling prettily along its façade, which is…
Winter warmers
James Cook’s third voyage as an English captain ended in disaster, stabbed to death and disembowelled by a pack of…
Man with a plan
Can you be both restless and content? Standing last week with Graeme McPherson on the viewing platform over his sharply…
Essence of…
In Competition 2832 you were invited to compose what might be a quintessential opening paragraph from the pen of either…
When I played softball for Esquire, against Screw
Al Goldstein, who died recently and made the front page of the New York Times, was among the world’s most…
The joy of showing my grandson how to wield an axe
Until a fortnight ago there was a healthy, graceful, 70ft-specimen of Eucalyptus dalrympleana — or mountain gum — in the…
My iPhone, iPad and Blackberry are conspiring against me
‘How often do you de-frag this?’ said the Good Geek in the phone shop. I had gone in finally to…
Forget the sex scandal. Why does Francois Hollande have only one pair of shoes?
Of all the interesting revelations by the French magazine Closer about François Hollande, the most interesting for me is its…
I don't love money, but I love the risks it makes me take
On the flight into Kinshasa, I sat next to an elderly Englishman who was pallid with fear. He revealed that…
Bridge
Do you ever watch the greats playing bridge? And if you do, are you sometimes baffled, because instead of playing…
Warhorses
Towards the end of last year, those two old warhorses Anatoly Karpov and Jan Timman added to their total of over…
No. 297
White to play. This position is a variation from Nepomniachtchi-Ivanchuk, Beijing 2013. White has a ferocious attack. How can he…
Talking shop
In Competition 2830 you were invited to choose, from different authors, two characters who have the same job or position…
2145: Two in a row
Unclued lights form four thematic pairs, one of which combines to form a single word. Across 1 Working…
Christmas crossword: The winners
Christmas carols, and their anagrammed ‘new titles’: O COME ALL YE FAITHFUL IT CAME UPON THE MIDNIGHT CLEAR ONCE…
Want to create the next Mark Zuckerberg? Teach Latin!
I was disappointed to read an article in the Times about a new free school in Hammersmith being proposed by…
Battle for Britain
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How James Goldsmith's wisdom on mistresses could revolutionise mobile phones
I wouldn’t worry much about the future of the British economy. Because I have a simple plan to make the…
Dear Mary: How can I escape my neighbour’s spy cameras?
Q. I have a problem with what might be called location blindness. I live in Balham, but when I arrange…
Is there a clean joke for Burns Night? I asked Cecil Parkinson...
As a life, it was a scintillating spectrum of the human condition. There was hardship and suffering, as well as…
Where did ‘No justice, no peace’ come from?
The chant No justice, no peace by supporters of Mark Duggan, the drug gangster shot dead by police in 2011,…
