Manet in Italy
Roderick Conway Morris on the French master’s love affair with the art and artists of the Renaissance
Sculptural rhythms
One generation is usually so busy reacting against its predecessors that it can take years for a balanced appreciation of…
Old friends
Mention of the 70th anniversary of Composer of the Week brings to mind a distinguished list of long-running programmes on…
False starts
This is brilliant. The new play by Oliver Cotton, a 69-year-old actor, is set in New York in 1986. An…
Intimate and intense
What could be more delightful than going to Gyndebourne with someone who has never been before, arriving in time for…
Complete opposites
Sandra Bullock is a highly watchable actress and she seems like she’d be fun to hang out with — I…
A different truth
Every so often a programme comes along that completely alters the way you think about something you thought you understood.…
The fake and the furious
I watched Top Gear (BBC2, Sunday) for the first time in my life last week (the rock under which I’ve…
Voyeurs all
Standing enthusiastically by as a naked man writhes in agony might not be everyone’s cup of tea. But this is…
High life
Gstaad One possesses youth, talent, fame, even beauty, the other none of the above except arrogance, physical repulsiveness and…
Real life
‘Benvenuti alla Small Cluster Band!’ And about time, too. We had been sitting in the Castello in Castellabate for half…
Long life
When we bought the farmhouse in Tuscany, where I am now, more than 40 years ago, there were only two…
The turf
A fresh new breeze is wafting through British racing. Led by the enthusiastic Sheikh Fahad Al Thani, the Qatar ruling…
Bridge
I haven’t played rubber bridge for a few years now (the demands of young children), but recently I’ve been hearing…
Il miglior fabbro
Lothar Schmid, chess grandmaster, the world’s greatest collector of chess books and the only arbiter trusted by Bobby Fischer, died…
no. 277
White to play. This position is from Keene-Eley, Whitby 1964. White’s next move won at once. What did he play?…
The new black
In Competition 2808 you were invited to invent a new addition to the genre that already includes Tartan Noir and…
2124: Pack
Seven unclued lights are words that may be regarded as 13 18. The remaining unclued light supplies the material with…
Solution to 2121: Take Care
All the unclued lights mean ‘Goodbye’. First prize Alan Donovan, Croydon, Surrey Runners-up Mary Varela, Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex; Geoffrey…
Britain is now a socialist utopia
Scarcely a day passes, it seems, without another book landing with a thud on my desk that bemoans the rise…
Why the NHS is like a kitten
Of all the strange behaviours of the rich, owning horses long struck me as the most bizarre. A horse, when…
Dear Mary
Q. I very recently attended my son’s black-tie leavers’ ball at his school on one of the hottest evenings of…
Bottled opera
Glyndebourne. There is no single quintessential example of English scenery, but this is one of the finest. The landscape is …
