Lockdown unlocked
The choreographers called on to get the nation’s dancers back on to the stage have as much to say about…
Taking charge
As a wise colleague once said: ‘Yesterday is a great time to buy a computer, because you have already enjoyed…
Give the people what they think they want
I have a mean streak. Perhaps my cruellest urge is to give people what they claim to want. When political…
The caged bird sings
At the first night of Glyndebourne Festival 2021 there was relief and joyful expectation as Gus Christie made his speech…
History repeats itself
Fifty-one years ago, in the BBC’s much-acclaimed The Six Wives of Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn was portrayed as a brave…
Artist’s Notebook
I’m blessed by the fact that I live almost smack-bang in the middle of old London, a pebble’s toe punt…
Viking words
Supposedly 5 per cent of words in English are borrowed from Old Norse. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but…
Dear Mary
Q. At a lunch party, I was getting on so well with someone I had not met before. She knew…
The new breed of retail investors look like ducks ready for stuffing
‘Feed the ducks when they’re quacking’ sounds like advice from a foie gras farmer — but let’s leave gastronomy till…
Title deeds
The best thing on the radio last week was, without question, Kind Hearts and Coronets. You may have missed it…
The state we’re in
As Britain starts its long Covid recovery, are deeper problems lurking beneath the surface? Matthew d’Ancona certainly thinks so, and…
Still Can do
Krautrock pioneer Irmin Schmidt talks to Graeme Thomson about taking risks, playing badly and ignoring the Brits
Letters
Uncivil service Sir: The elephant in the room in the handling of the pandemic (‘A tragedy of errors’, 29 May)…
A battle of wits
Rapid technological advance, a dark underworld of uncensored publishing, a threatened rupture with Scotland, even fears of a new outbreak…
The music of mindfulness
At George Harrison’s 1971 concert for Bangladesh, awkwardly, the audience applauded after Ravi Shankar and his musicians had paused to…
Courage of the ‘ghetto girls’
‘Jewish Resistance in Poland: Women Trample Nazi Soldiers,’ ran a New York headline in late 1942. That autumn, the Nazi…
Colour and confusion
Back to the Globe after more than a year. The theatre has zealously maintained its pre–Covid staffing levels. On press…
Monsters and miracles
Mircea Cartarescu likens his native Romania to a Latin American country stranded in eastern Europe. Certainly, his writing delivers not…
The rising tide
In 2009 Margaret Atwood published The Year of the Flood, set in the aftermath of a waterless flood, a flu-like…
When two become one
‘When pictures painted as companions are separated,’ John Constable wisely observed, ‘the purchaser of one, without being aware of it,…
Overhaul
Last week, John Lewis and Marks & Spencer were overhauling their stores. Football clubs were madly overhauling teams and we…
