Which comes first, the events or the zeitgeist? Peter Biskind examines pop culture
![Cable and Deadpool recreate the image from the Sistine chapel (Deadpool 2) [Rex Shutterstock]](https://www.spectator.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/rexfeatures_9691437i.jpg?w=410&h=275&crop=1)
Those who study culture — or think about public policy in relation to it — often wrestle with the classic…
Shashi Tharoor’s book is a polemic, says Kapil Komireddi – beware of Hindu nationalism
Most religions bind their adherents into a community of believers. Hinduism segregates them into castes. And people excluded from the…
Some novels are aptly named – Distortion is one of them
Coming 12 years after his acclaimed debut, Londonstani, Gautam Malkani’s second novel Distortion features a vivid argot, complicating and defamiliarising…
Henry Jeffreys is charmed by the irrepressible wine expert Oz Clarke
There are only two British television wine presenters taxi drivers have heard of, Jilly Goolden and Oz Clarke. Who can…
Oleg Gordievsky, the ultimate spy story — and Ben Macintyre, the best writer to tell it
Spy stories, whether the stuff of fictional thrillers or, as in the case of Sergei Skripal, the real deal —…
An old-school biography, a big subject, and a book as heavy as a house brick, Oscar reviewed
In the autumn of 1897, after two years in jail on a charge of ‘gross indecency’, Oscar Wilde absconded to…
Bellini vs Mantegna – whose side are you on?
Sometimes Andrea Mantegna was just showing off. For the Palazzo Ducale in Mantua, he painted a false ceiling above the…
After 1980 Pinter began to write like a student troll: Pinter at the Pinter reviewed
The drop-curtain resembles a granite slab on which the genius’s name has been carved for all time. The festival of…
Impeccably – and intriguingly – unclear: BBC1’s The Cry reviewed
It’s a radical thought I know, but I sometimes wonder what it would be like if a new TV thriller…
A fascinating failure, but a failure nonetheless: ENO’s Salome reviewed
![A woman-child of dangerous assurance: Allison Cook as Salome in Adena Jacobs’s new production for English National Opera. [Catherine Ashmore]](https://www.spectator.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/6Octopera.jpg?w=410&h=275&crop=1)
Yes, Oscar Wilde never wrote it. No, Strauss didn’t intend it. In fact, the composer famously demanded the Dance of…
Lady Gaga is a revelation: A Star is Born reviewed
This version of A Star Is Born, starring Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga, is the fourth iteration (Janet Gaynor and…
A week of extraordinarily direct and honest radio on the World Service
The most inspiring voice on radio this week belongs to Hetty Werkendam, or rather to her 15-year-old self as she…
William Forsythe on the day the US government threatened to arrest him
William Forsythe has been called a lot of things in his four decades as a dancemaker: wilful provocateur, ‘pretentious as…
No one would want this gig to be the final memory of them: Soft Cell at the O2 reviewed
When Soft Cell first appeared on Top of the Pops in summer 1981, miming along to their version of Gloria…
If Jeremy Corbyn gets in, then I’m out
To London for much too brief a visit: a marriage, lunch with Commodore Tim Hoare, and a look-see for a…
The English-Scottish gender divide
Once the house move was completed, Catriona’s oldest and best Scottish friends, two of them, came to stay for a…
I am a prisoner of Norton AntiVirus
Two and a half hours after my tech guy began trying to uninstall Norton, he had purple smoke coming out…
I saw my future in the entrails of a butchered sheep
Laikipia, Kenya The Turkana cowhands are on Facebook and they spend a lot of time on their cell phones,…
Bridge
I’ve just arrived in Orlando, where the 15th World Bridge Series is taking place. I’m here for the second event…
Role model
World champion Magnus Carlsen is not competing in the Batumi Olympiad (of which more next week). Doubtless he is conserving…
no. 526
White to play. This position is from Giron-Altaya, Batumi Olympiad 2018. Can you spot White’s classic winning combination? Answers to…
Back-to-front sonnet
In Competition No. 3068 you were invited to provide a sonnet in reverse, using as your model Rupert Brooke’s ‘Sonnet…
2379: Shocking
Eight headwords in Chambers consist of the same word. Unclued lights (including two trios and one doing double duty) give…
to 2376: Somewhere XI
On 15 September, Costa Rica, bordered by PANAMA (31) and NICARAGUA (5), and whose capital is SAN JOSÉ (40/10), celebrated…
Alexa, who is Toby Young?
My oldest friend Sean Langan came to lunch last Sunday and, rather disappointingly, he seemed more interested in playing with…
