In-depth analysis of the day’s news, plus stories and gossip from Australian politics.
The Redeemer
The political trigger for the Ring was the 1849 Dresden uprising, when the young freedom fighter Richard Wagner financed the…
Double speak
Tom Fletcher, a young star of the Foreign Office, made his reputation last year when he blogged his ‘valedictory despatch’…
Strange sightings in Essex
I suspect some readers might be too cool for this lovely book, partly because, despite its gothic horror set-up, it…
The folly of youth
Let’s start with arithmetic. Edmund White’s 11th novel is a book about age and ageing. The young man of the…
Manhattan transfer
Good historical fiction takes more than research. Henry James once said that writers needed to shed everything that made them…
Time trials
What are ‘lost time accidents’, apart from something on building-site signs announcing hours lost to worker injuries? In this novel…
The pursuit of happiness
There is a wonderful portrait of Kenelm Digby by Van Dyke. He is dressed in black. His hand is on…
Out of this world
It is London in the summer of 1871. Queen Victoria has just opened the Royal Albert Hall in memory of…
Split decision
In 1992 I wrote a column that was published under the headline ‘It’s Time to Split the Tate’. To my…
Tumultuous relationship
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Highly illogical
Matteo Garrone’s first English-language film is a baroque fantasy based on Pentamerone (Tale of Tales), the 17th-century collection of fairy…
Online
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Wardrobe malfunction
It is at the Coliseum that I have seen the most wonderful Tristan and Isoldes of my life, both of…
Cricket
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I dream of Genie
Gauche, perhaps, to complain about Aladdin but it slightly deserves it. The terrific Genie opens the show and then disappears…
Bernie
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Swan upping
Was Tamara Rojo, when she danced Swan Lake last Saturday at the Albert Hall, thinking as she shaped each phrase,…
Trump
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My big fat Gypsy fortune
In his latest documentary for the This World series, the Romanian film-maker Liviu Tipurita could have been forgiven for treading…
Australian letters
The Peta principle Sir: A besotted Richard Ferguson didn’t hold back on the superlatives in his pean to Peta Credlin…
Women of substance
Three women, three writers, three very different life experiences. On Monday afternoon the artist Fiona Graham-Mackay introduced us to Imtiaz…
Breadline
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High life
Marion, Baroness Lambert, was hit and killed by a London bus last month while shopping in Oxford Street, a cruel…
Stuffing
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Low life
Michel is one of those Frenchmen one encounters now and again whose shining saintliness is beyond rational understanding. This great…
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Magazine
Coalition must U-turn on X
Kudos to Senator Ralph Babet and to One Nation for opposing this tyrannical abomination
