Life
Language
We all know ‘adult’ the noun, and we know what an ‘adult’ is (‘because,’ as a friend said to me,…
My one to watch at the French Open
The timing of Brendon McCullum’s appointment as England’s Test match coach couldn’t be better for him, or for the matey…
2556: Recent origins
The unclued entries have something in common, and are the most recent of their type. One umlaut should be ignored…
Dear Mary: How do I dodge my village’s Jubilee tug-of-war contest?
Q. I’m 28 and lucky enough to own a four-bed house in Notting Hill. I let three of the rooms…
The perfect restaurant for the Labour party: Arcade reviewed
I should know better than to visit restaurants assembled as if from disparate bricks, like thrift-shop Duplo: but the ever-credulous…
2553: Island alien - solution
The unclued lights when arranged as 12, 11, 43, 5, 24, 1D, 1A form Chambers’definition of MULLET at 30D. First…
Why nothing ever comes ‘for free’
‘It’s not as nice as it looks,’ said my husband, not leaving time to look it in the mouth before…
No. 703
White to play. Vachier-Lagrave-Caruana, Bucharest 2022. The Bh4 can retreat to g3, f2 or e1. Which one is best, and…
Jacob Rees-Mogg does Mills & Boon
In Competition No. 3249, you were invited to submit an extract from a Mills & Boon novel whose central character…
Rock, paper, scissors
The Superbet Chess Classic in Bucharest concluded last weekend in a dramatic tiebreak between Wesley So, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Levon…
The art of laziness
New York Living a life of pleasure is fun, but it can also become tiresome. Living an ethical life of…
The politics of horse muck
‘You coming to help us poo pick?’ said my friend Terry, in a desperate sounding voice message. The builder boyfriend…
How not to fish
After two nights at Le Grau-du-Roi (the King’s Pond) and a night spent within the medieval walls of Aigues-Mortes (Stagnant…
Bridge | 21 May 2022
It was time to celebrate! The Schapiro Spring Foursomes was back again after the enforced Covid break, and the EBU’s…
The courage of Katharine Birbalsingh
Five years ago, I put my friend Nell Butler in touch with Katharine Birbalsingh, Britain’s most outspoken headmistress. I was…
The Battle for Britain | 21 May 2022
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Aussie life
Are conservative journalists more endangered than polar bears? Unlike the habitat of the world’s largest land carnivore, the landscape across…
(Pro-) Aussie life
‘We are not changing any of the settings and I don’t believe we need to change any of the settings’…
Spectator competition winners: The last will and testament of Gollum
In Competition No. 3248, you were asked to submit the last will and testament of a fictional character. In a…
No. 702
White to play. Averbakh-Zita, Szczawno-Zdroj 1950. Black has just interposed Rb6-g6, so White needs an accurate finish before e3-e2 mate…
Solution to 2552: 😀
The emoticon which formed the title of the puzzle suggested George Smiley, Le Carré’s nemesis of MI6 moles, ordered as…
2555: 6 x 2 mixtures
The unclued lights (one of two words) can be resolved into six pairs, in some way related. Ignore one acute…
Remembering Averbakh
Yuri Averbakh had a wry explanation for why he was made chairman of the USSR Chess Federation in 1972. There…
How not to understand the Brexit referendum
Simon Kuper’s Chums: How a Tiny Caste of Oxford Tories Took Over the UK is a wonderful compendium of anecdotes…
The horror of gluten-free beer
I was reminded of the worst liquid that I have ever consumed. It was the last occasion on which I…
