The problem with British mosques
My earliest memory of a mosque is being with my father in London’s Brick Lane Mosque. He was a member…
How good a painter was Frida Kahlo?
In 2004 Mexican art historians made a sensational discovery in Frida Kahlo’s bathroom. Inside this space, sealed since the 1950s,…
Sexy hints of affluence with top notes of fascism: Grange Park’s Roméo et Juliette reviewed
Patrick Mason’s new production of Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette reminded me of something, but it took a while to work…
The dumbing down of the Reith Lectures
It’s been a heavyweight week on Radio 4 with the start of the annual series of Reith Lectures and a…
So bad I wanted to escape: An Octoroon reviewed
Intriguing word, ‘octoroon’. Does it mean an eight-sided almond-flavoured cakelet? No, it’s a person whose ancestry is one eighth black.…
Fury and excitement – how the journalists at the New York Times have coped with Trump
Back when his country was controlled by the USSR, the Czech writer Milan Kundera pointed out that ‘Union of Soviet…
Leave No Trace is inaction-packed – yet it pulls you in and keeps you pulled in
Debra Granik, the writer-director who made quite a splash with Winter’s Bone (which launched the career of Jennifer Lawrence in…
Antony Gormley’s art works better in theory than in practice
Antony Gormley has replicated again. Every year or so a new army of his other selves — cast, or these…
An extraordinary, brilliant spectacle: Taylor Swift at Wembley Stadium reviewed
Imagine living Taylor Swift’s life. She has been staggeringly, life-dominatingly famous since she was 17. Not for a single moment…
Is it time to move to Austria?
Schloss Wolfsegg I was watching two very old men slowly approaching the open doors of the Pilatus airplane I…
Why I was proud to be a dustman
I heard the last and final call for flight 6114 to Nice while shuffling forward in the unexpectedly long queue…
Me and my gun
Finally, I got my hands on a gun. About the size of a sawn-off shotgun it was, just under 20in…
A cow is better than a bank balance
Laikipia, Kenya A minotaur head glowers at me through the bathroom window while I am brushing my teeth in…
Bridge
When my talented friend Paula Leslie and I decided to put a team together for the Hubert Philips Bowl (England’s…
The Caruana conundrum
Over the course of this year Fabiano Caruana has scored splendidly in tournaments with classical time limits, notching up first…
no. 512
White to play. This position is from Anand-Caruana, Leuven Blitz 2018. How did Anand achieve a winning material advantage? Answers…
Double vision
In Competition No. 3054 you were invited to compose double dactyls about double acts. I didn’t include the rules about…
2365: Beds
One of the clued lights below reveals the theme which Brewer confirms. One of the unclued lights is not paired…
to 2362: MEN OF NOTE IV
The unclued lights are COMPOSERS whose surnames begin with the letter D. First prize E.C. Hynard, GuernseyRunners-up Geran Jones, London…
The problem with deciding that popular culture is ‘problematic’
A controversy has erupted in Folkestone over a forthcoming screening of Zulu, the classic British war film. A charity has…
Never mind VAR – this is a fabulous World Cup
Let’s talk about VAR, why don’t we? We love the World Cup though the football is getting bonkers. The scoring…
Dear Mary: How can I stop a controversial columnist from being sacked?
Q. A close friend is an elderly writer who has contributed, as a monthly columnist, to the same publication for…
Wedge salad in the shadow of the Tudors: Sargeant’s Mess reviewed
Sargeant’s Mess (2018) is a tourist catcher’s net in restaurant form by the Tower of London (c. 1078). It has views…
The origins of the famous blue tiles of Portugal’s buildings have been misunderstood
A friend sent a nice postcard from Portugal showing the outside of a church covered with old blue tiles. She…
