Lewis Carroll
The difference between ‘sliver’ and ‘slither’ is a piece of cake
When people say a slither of cake, do they not remember that snakes slither? ‘Slither slide; sliver small piece,’ says…
Are we going to have to start taking Calixto Bieito seriously? ENO’s Carmen reviewed
Calixto Bieito’s Carmen: three words to make an opera critic’s heart leap. Until quite recently, Bieito was the operatic provocateur…
What’s the word for a word that’s been used only once?
It is easy to speak a sentence never spoken before since the world came fresh from its mould. It’s not…
A brief history of unicorns
After the England football team beat Tunisia at this summer’s World Cup, they celebrated with a swimming-pool race on inflatable…
A chance to see the Moomins’ creator for the genius she really was: Tove Janssons reviewed
Tove Jansson, according to her niece’s husband, was a squirt in size and could rarely be persuaded to eat, preferring…
Damon Albarn’s wonder.land will not succeed at the National. It might work in Vegas
Damon Albarn and Rufus Norris present a musical version of Alice in Wonderland. A challenging enterprise even if they’d stuck…
When Rex met Edith: a meeting of minds in interwar England
Rex Whistler — this book’s ‘bright young thing’ — was an artist of the 1920s and 1930s, and Edith Olivier,…
Stolen kisses and naked girls: there is much to wonder about in Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland
A.S. Byatt explores the dark alternatives to innocence in Lewis Carroll’s deeply disturbing looking-glass world
