Life
Bongo
Alexandra Shulman was on Desert Island Discs this summer and one choice was ‘Bongo Bong’. Its words tell a simple…
Flowers of Stellenbosch
One aspect of the old South Africa’s racial policies cannot be faulted. After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes,…
Veterans’ day
As part of the after-dinner entertainment on a cruise ship recently, I encountered a couple of comedians. One claimed he…
A touch of class
Usually it is annoying when you have to board an aeroplane via a shuttle bus rather than an airbridge. The…
Taki: I’m on Hemingway’s boat — but there’s no bringing back the old Riviera
Porto Heli I am standing on the deck of a 100ft schooner that was built in Normandy in 1931 by…
Melissa Kite meets the Greek dog lady on Tooting Common and has words
My spaniel has been pronounced ‘too thin’ by a lady who rescues dogs from Greece. I had stopped to chat…
Alexander Chancellor: I found the key to holiday happiness in a car park
While sitting beside a pool under a blistering Tuscan sun, I’ve been reading an article in Corriere della Sera about…
Bridge
We all need time off from our addictions and August is my annual holiday and break from bridge. One of…
Miles gloriosus
England’s leading female player, Jovanka Houska, recently called for a memorial to the late Tony Miles. The timing is fitting.…
Puzzle No.278
White to play, a variation from Speelman-Miles, London 1975. White has two pieces forked. What is the most accurate continuation…
Pretentious, moi?
In Competition 2809 you were invited to submit a letter liberally sprinkled with evidence of an imperfect grasp of foreign…
2125: Nil desperandum
‘1/5/28’ (five words in total) is part of a quotation in ODQ and suggests how to find the common element…
Solution to 2122: Theme and Variations
The theme word is GRAVES: 19, 34 and 40 are famous cemeteries; 17, 28 and 39 are wines from SW…
The myths of the English countryside
One of the great things about spending the summer holidays in England is that it gives you an opportunity to…
Football’s still the big boy in the playground – even when the big boys aren’t playing
It’s been a long, hot, soccerless holiday. There has been football about — the women’s European Championship, for example, and…
Dave
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Dear Mary: How can I tell her that her table manners are disgusting?
Q. My mainly male colleagues and I were happy to learn that an attractive young woman would be joining the…
‘Like a concentration camp run by KFC’: Tanya Gold visits Shake Shack
Shake Shack is a hamburger restaurant in Covent Garden market. It came from New York and it is as needy…
Mind your language: Frack vs frag
‘Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a frack,’ replied my husband unwittily when I asked how he’d feel if shale…
World shaking
Shake Shack is a hamburger restaurant in Covent Garden market. It came from New York and it is as needy…
Speculation season
It’s been a long, hot, soccerless holiday. There has been football about — the women’s European Championship, for example, and…
Taki: What Roger Federer and Anthony Weiner have in common
Gstaad One possesses youth, talent, fame, even beauty, the other none of the above except arrogance, physical repulsiveness and…
His first night out in three weeks and Jeremy Clarke failed to pull
I haven’t been out for three weeks and I’m up for a big night. To prove it I’m wearing my…
Melissa Kite is punished for ignoring the Madonna of the sea
‘Benvenuti alla Small Cluster Band!’ And about time, too. We had been sitting in the Castello in Castellabate for half…
Why don’t the Italians ask me to translate their restaurant menus?
When we bought the farmhouse in Tuscany, where I am now, more than 40 years ago, there were only two…
