Life
The greatest novel in English – and how to drink it
Which is the greatest novel in the English language? Let us review the candidates: Clarissa, Pride and Prejudice, Middlemarch, The…
Mind your language: How the Dreamliner got its name
‘Planes don’t run off batteries,’ declared my husband, his finger unerringly on the pulse of technology as ever. I had…
A glass of wine with Dickens
Which is the greatest novel in the English language? Let us review the candidates: Clarissa, Pride and Prejudice, Middlemarch, The…
The Force is with us
Clive Cox, once a conditional jockey in Lambourn, fell at the first fence one year in the Grand National. ‘Mind…
A question of trust
Now that most taxi drivers use satnavs, should ‘the Knowledge’ be abolished? Shouldn’t we ditch the requirement that all London…
High life:My first Egyptian coup
I remember it well. It was August 1952, and I was dining with my parents on the Palm Beach casino’s…
I didn't want to talk about my cancer. But then I got to the party...
Searching the web for information about the enigmatic Bilderberg group, I came across a website called Who Controls America? It’s…
Real life: ‘I am going to sit here until you issue me with my warranty papers’
This is the story of the amazing, disappearing car warranty. It is a cautionary tale that all second-hand car buyers…
Long life: Putin, Saatchi, Murdoch...hell hath no fury like an old man scorned
The days may be long gone when a husband would pretend to commit adultery in a Brighton hotel so as…
Bridge
Tor Helness, the Norwegian-born superstar who now plays for Monaco, partnering his wife Gunn in the European Mixed Teams, had…
Gelfand’s hat trick
As previously reported, 45-year-old Boris Gelfand, the oldest player in the tournament, convincingly won the Tal Memorial in Moscow. This…
No. 274
White to play. This position is from Al-Sayed-Georgiev, Fidé World Rapid 2013. What is the most accurate way for White…
Cringeworthy
In Competition 2805 you were invited to submit toe-curlingly bad analogies. Congratulations! You obliged with a stream of analogies glorious…
2121: Take care
The unclued lights, two of two words, are of a kind. Elsewhere, ignore an apostrophe. Across 1 We hear…
to 2118: Unreliable
Eight unclued lights are EXPERTS (24), whom — according to the words of LORD SALISBURY (9) supplied by superfluous and…
The saddest discovery of middle age: I can get by without my old friends
A few years ago, I got the shock of my life when a girl I was sitting next to at…
Dave
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Spectator sport: Why Andy Murray may be the greatest sportsman Britain has produced
There’s nothing we old folk like more than a chat about how poorly all our friends and acquaintances are. This…
Dear Mary: How can I stop friends from coming to my book launch?
Q. I have far too many friends to be able to invite them all to my forthcoming book launch. How…
Tanya Gold eats suckling pig at Le Café Anglais
I write this column at the point of a pitchfork. A, normally so placid — ‘He’s so placid!’ people like…
Transparency
On 21 June 1785, James Woodforde was in Norwich and in the evening went to Bunns pleasure gardens, where ‘there…
The day of the pig
I write this column at the point of a pitchfork. A, normally so placid — ‘He’s so placid!’ people like…
Murray’s mountain
There’s nothing we old folk like more than a chat about how poorly all our friends and acquaintances are. This…
Taki: why would anyone want 72 virgins? They're useless in bed
The long lazy summer is upon us, and as I walk the Swiss hills below the mountain ranges my thoughts…
Jeremy Clarke: 'Can you part your cheeks a bit?’ I did so. There was a stunned silence
Sir Francis Drake died of dysentery while attacking the town of San Juan in Puerto Rico. He was buried at…
