Selling secrecy
In the ‘psychotherapy ward’ of a secret venue somewhere in east London, watercolour portraits of troubled male faces line the…
Selling secrecy
In the ‘psychotherapy ward’ of a secret venue somewhere in east London, watercolour portraits of troubled male faces line the…
A narrow escape
C.J. Sansom is deservedly famous for his Shardlake crime novels, featuring a 16th-century lawyer on the fringes of the court.…
Review: The Rolling Stones at the O2 Arena
‘How’re you doing in the cheap seats? They’re not that cheap, though, that’s the problem,’ said Mick Jagger as he…
Review: The Rolling Stones at the O2 Arena
‘How’re you doing in the cheap seats? They’re not that cheap, though, that’s the problem,’ said Mick Jagger as he…
Classic Coe
You sense that writing Seb Coe: The Autobiography (Hodder, £20) must have been a pleasurable task for the Lord of…
The Wizard of Oz
The Conservatives’ next election campaign will be run by Lynton Crosby, an Australian whose success has earned him the title…
The Wizard of Oz
The Conservatives’ next election campaign will be run by Lynton Crosby, an Australian whose success has earned him the title…
A world apart
Although the starving artist in the garret is no longer the favourite public stereotype, painters and sculptors remain something of…
The Dagenham Dustbin
For those of us who find passion in national iconography, this is a melancholy historical moment. It’s a very bad…
A world apart
Although the starving artist in the garret is no longer the favourite public stereotype, painters and sculptors remain something of…
The Dagenham Dustbin
For those of us who find passion in national iconography, this is a melancholy historical moment. It’s a very bad…
The one who got away with it
The first track on Neil Young’s latest album lasts nearly 28 minutes, for while he usually has no problem starting,…
Weaving magic
Tapestry, papal and princely, never quite went away. Today it satisfies a need for conspicuous displays of skill of the…
Wild life
Northern Kenya If I go out in darkness I dread neither the leopard nor the lion but I recoil from…
Weaving magic
Tapestry, papal and princely, never quite went away. Today it satisfies a need for conspicuous displays of skill of the…
Narrative drive
Michael Holroyd describes this tiny, charmingly pointless publication (On Wheels, Chatto, £9.99) not as a book but as an example…
London pride
The trend for documentary portraits of individual cities assembled from archive footage continues with Julien Temple’s London: The Modern Babylon,…
London pride
The trend for documentary portraits of individual cities assembled from archive footage continues with Julien Temple’s London: The Modern Babylon,…
Captivating kaleidoscope
When Philippe Decouflé first introduced the idea of sheer fun into the deadly serious business of postmodern dance-making, sceptics predicted…
Too much time in the library
Donna Leon’s The Jewels of Paradise (Heinemann, £17.99)has a promising premise. A young musicologist, Caterina Pelligroni, returns to Venice to…
All that jazz
What London can give jazz music — beyond an audience in its concert halls — is a setting to match…
All that jazz
What London can give jazz music — beyond an audience in its concert halls — is a setting to match…
Mixed bag
Last year I raved about Birmingham Royal Ballet, their artistic drive, their freshness, their impeccable artistic eclecticism and, not least,…
The darker side of Dawn
I like Dawn French when she is playing a sinister nurse much more than when she’s a jolly vicar. As…
