Arts
Blunt weapon
Only a fool would mess with James Blunt. As his Twitter followers know, he has a sharp wit, and, as…
Blunt weapon
Only a fool would mess with James Blunt. As his Twitter followers know, he has a sharp wit, and, as…
Japanomania
Peter Hoskin on the island nation that has taken over popular culture
Saved by Spotify
We have all read about the current woeful state of the CD industry — how it is 28 per cent…
Rubens wronged
The main spring offering at the Royal Academy, Rubens and His Legacy: Van Dyck to Cézanne, teaches two useful lessons.…
Give us a break
Gay plays crowd the theatrical canon. There are the necessary enigmas of Noël Coward, like The Vortex or Design For…
Jugglers v. dancers
January is something of a palate-cleanser for the year, as the London International Mime Festival flies in plane-loads of companies…
Cruel to be kind
Trash is the sort of film one desperately wishes to be kind about — heart supremely, if not burstingly, in…
Crime and punishment
In one of the more peculiar concerts that I have been to at the Royal Festival Hall, Vladimir Jurowski conducted…
Ebola shakes
By some quirk of fate, just as news reached the papers that the Scottish nurse who had contracted Ebola while…
The long goodbye
In January 1958, the British government began working on the significantly titled Operation Hope Not: its plans for what to…
Culture buff
Possibly in the most beautiful setting of any theatre in the world, Sydney’s Wharf Theatre saw its first performances 30…
Jugglers v. dancers
January is something of a palate-cleanser for the year, as the London International Mime Festival flies in plane-loads of companies…
Saved by Spotify
We have all read about the current woeful state of the CD industry — how it is 28 per cent…
Saved by Spotify
We have all read about the current woeful state of the CD industry — how it is 28 per cent…
Cellulite factor
Are Rubens’s figures too fat for the British to appreciate them? Martin Gayford investigates
Depicting the Prophet
Two months ago I was sitting beside the tomb of a descendant of the Prophet Mohammed, telling a story about…
Heads will roll
Who on earth could have predicted that a hoary old operatic melodrama set in revolutionary France would find resonance in…
Stolen pleasures
I’ve never been into shoplifting, though I once had a friend who was. And, no, before you ask, I’m not…
It’s a knockout
A knockout show at the Young Vic. Literally. The stage has been reconfigured as a boxing ring to make Mike…
Great coat
A Most Violent Year is a riveting drama even though I can’t tell you what it’s about, or even what…
Losing the plot
Probably the two greatest advances in western culture in my lifetime have been the Sopranos-style epic serial drama and the…
Transported by Tolstoy
To have listened to Radio 4’s marathon ten-hour adaptation of Tolstoy’s War and Peace as it was being broadcast on…
Culture buff
This is a great time of the year to make progress with that stack of unread books. One of my…
Stolen pleasures
I’ve never been into shoplifting, though I once had a friend who was. And, no, before you ask, I’m not…
