Music was always Anthony Burgess’s first love
A gifted pianist and composer, Burgess combined his talents in a superb series of music reviews, published for the first time in a complete collection
No one could match Tess, to Thomas Hardy’s dismay
Hardy’s 38-year marriage to Emma Gifford was notoriously acrimonious; but even his much younger second wife, Florence, never seemed to measure up to his fictional heroines
Copyright chaos grows deeper by the minute
With AI and ChatGPT, we now have an exploding copyright arena in which all bets seem to be off
Tata for now
Wei Yi had just won a riveting game in round 11 of the Tata Steel Masters event (see puzzle no.…
The thoughts of Chairman Xi – in digestible form
Steve Tsang and Olivia Cheung helpfully cut through the jargon of interminable speeches and publications, and the totalitarian vision they expose is not reassuring
Gang warfare in the west of Ireland: Wild Houses, by Colin Barrett, reviewed
The brother of a small-time drugs dealer is kidnapped, and his family and girlfriend set off to find him over the course of one violent, hectic weekend
A wealth of knowledge salvaged from shipwrecks
Goods found on board can illuminate trade routes and global connections, often going back thousands of years, in ways no other archaeological sites can
The grim life of a Roman legionary
Over the heather the wet wind blows, I’ve lice in my tunic and a cold in my nose. The rain…
