Arts feature
Acting up
Gemma Arterton’s new film, Their Finest, is about second world war propaganda. Her character, who is bookish and sensitive, is…
Concrete cuckoo
The Catholic Church’s Second Vatican Council provides a salutary example of a tiny ‘elite’ foisting ‘anti-elitist’ practices on the ‘non-elite’…
A woman of genius
‘Your favourite virtue?’ ‘I don’t have any: they are all boring,’ wrote the 21-year-old Camille Claudel in a Victorian album…
Hollywood goes East
It’s kind of surreal being here.’ The general sentiment, no doubt, of most people on planet Earth right now, but…
Internal affairs
Over 20 years ago I wrote about Giambattista Tiepolo in The Spectator. Shortly afterwards I went to visit Howard Hodgkin…
The odd couple
Only once did Michelangelo sign a sculpture. It was the ‘Pietà’ of 1497–1500, and he did so using an incomplete…
Paradise lost
The American dream was a consumerist idyll: all of life was to be packaged, stylised, affordable and improvable. Three bedrooms,…
Paradise lost
The American dream was a consumerist idyll: all of life was to be packaged, stylised, affordable and improvable. Three bedrooms,…
From page to stage
Reading Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan quartet is a heady experience. You not only see, hear, know her characters — you can…
From page to stage
Reading Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan quartet is a heady experience. You not only see, hear, know her characters — you can…
Snap, crackle and pop
As you go into the new Wellcome Collection exhibition, Electricity: The Spark of Life, you might have in mind a…
Snap, crackle and pop
As you go into the new Wellcome Collection exhibition, Electricity: The Spark of Life, you might have in mind a…
Snap, crackle and pop
As you go into the new Wellcome Collection exhibition, Electricity: The Spark of Life, you might have in mind a…
Thoroughly modern Monteverdi
‘Eppur si muove’ — And yet it moves. Galileo’s defiant insistence that the Earth revolves round the Sun, his refusal…
Thoroughly modern Monteverdi
‘Eppur si muove’ — And yet it moves. Galileo’s defiant insistence that the Earth revolves round the Sun, his refusal…
Some like it hot
In the mid-6th century, legend has it, St Brendan set off from Ireland with a currach-load of monks on a…
Some like it hot
In the mid-6th century, legend has it, St Brendan set off from Ireland with a currach-load of monks on a…
Hull’s a poppin’
In early January, lastminute.com recommended its top 15 destinations for 2017. In 12th spot, just above Montreal, Croatia and Japan,…
Hull’s a poppin’
In early January, lastminute.com recommended its top 15 destinations for 2017. In 12th spot, just above Montreal, Croatia and Japan,…
The only way is up
Michael Andrews once noted the title of an American song on a scrap of paper: ‘Up is a Nice Place…
The only way is up
Michael Andrews once noted the title of an American song on a scrap of paper: ‘Up is a Nice Place…
Ideal homes
Artists, poets and philosophers have not paid much attention to Milton Keynes …although comedians have. This urban experiment has been…
Ideal homes
Artists, poets and philosophers have not paid much attention to Milton Keynes …although comedians have. This urban experiment has been…
Haus of ill repute
Here in Munich, in the gallery that Hitler built, this year’s big hit show is a spectacular display of modern…
Haus of ill repute
Here in Munich, in the gallery that Hitler built, this year’s big hit show is a spectacular display of modern…
