Australian art in the Roaring Twenties
The only criticism that can be levelled at For the Fallen by Paul Paffen is that it lacks the hard…
Singing Shakespeare
Britain is certainly revving up when it comes to culture. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s defiance about social distancing for his new…
The Dictionary of Lost Words
These days I don’t read many novels although occasionally I have to read one for my book group. Recently our…
Aussie Life
The only time that the BBC has ‘emu-lated’ an Australian broadcaster was in the early Seventies, when it suspended its…
Aussie Language
‘Muck-raking’ is an old journalism expression coined in the US around 1900 to describe two types of journalists: a) those…
Letters
Excess demand Sir: Liam Halligan (‘The house mafia’, 26 June) treats us to an exposé of the shoddy products of…
The importance of being earnest
Ken Burns made his name in 1990 with The Civil War, the justly celebrated 11-and-a-half-hour documentary series that gave America’s…
Men behaving drunkenly
Thomas Vinterberg’s Another Round has been heaped with awards: an Oscar, a Bafta, it swept the European Film Awards. And…
Bohemian rhapsody
Rosie Millard is transported to the Impasse Ronsin, a tiny, squalid cul de sac in Paris’s 15th arrondissement that was once the centre of the modern-art world
Spelling disaster
When you think of Handel’s Amadigi (in so far as anyone thinks about the composer’s rarely staged, also-ran London score…
Portrait of the week
Home A lively game of hunt the issue followed the resignation of Matt Hancock as Secretary of State for Health…
Miliband’s last supper
You have to hand it to Ed Miliband. After bacon sandwich-gate, he might never have eaten in public again, but…
My problem with the Euros
I’m struggling to work up much enthusiasm about England’s progress in the Euros. I know, I know, Tuesday night’s victory…
The political baggage of moving house
We are currently house-hunting — please let me know if you have one going spare. We are looking for a…
Dear Mary
Q. The other night, while hosting a house party, I was one of only three people still chatting by the…
Why I won’t buy a Tesla
I loved the Ford Mustang Mach-E which I had on loan for four days. It was gorgeous to drive, and…
Kings of Convenience: Peace or Love
Grade: A– The problem with Norwegians is that they are so relentlessly, mind-numbingly pleasant. Well, OK, not Knut Hamsun or…
Huntin’, shootin’, fishin’
In 1923 in Whose Body? we were introduced to Lord Peter Wimsey on his way to an auction where he…
Teach first
Aswitch of personnel at the Department of Health this week has brought a welcome change in the government’s tone. No…
