Sicily

Cosa Nostra notebook

2 September 2023 9:00 am

How a Liberal MP's inability to draw led him to invent photography

30 April 2016 9:00 am

William Henry Fox Talbot had many accomplishments. He was Liberal MP for Chippenham; at Cambridge he won a prize for…

Detail of mosaic depicting the martyrdom of Saints Castus and Cassius, 12th century, at the Cathedral of Monreale, Sicily

Norman Sicily was a multicultural paradise – but it didn’t last long

9 April 2016 9:00 am

There are lessons to be learned from the disintegration of this once majestic multicultural Norman kingdom, says Martin Gayford

Illustration by beatrice forshall

Is the Slender-billed curlew already extinct?

2 January 2016 9:00 am

This unusual book is beautifully written, produced and illustrated, but its subject — the small Slender-billed curlew — is strangely…

'Lion Hunt', 1861, by Eugène Delacroix

Galleries are getting bigger - but is there enough good art to put in them?

2 January 2016 9:00 am

Martin Gayford recommends the exhibitions to see — and to avoid — over the coming year

The world’s most wanted people-smuggler

18 July 2015 9:00 am

The godfather of people-trafficking is an Ethiopian called Ghermay Ermias. But it’s unlikely we’ll ever catch him

San Domenico church, Palermo

Palermo: city of jasmine and dark secrets

6 June 2015 9:00 am

The Arabs invaded Sicily in the ninth century, leaving behind mosques and pink-domed cupolas. In the Sicilian capital of Palermo,…

Inside Apollo’s head: designer Steffen Aarfing following Szymanowski’s stage instructions

‘Bewitching’: Krol Roger at the Royal Opera reviewed

9 May 2015 9:00 am

‘What gives your lies such power?’ asks the bewildered Sicilian leader in Szymanowski’s opera Krol Roger. The question is addressed…

How Lampedusa copes when the migrant ships come in

2 May 2015 9:00 am

Encounters with those who have risked their lives to cross the Mediterranean

An earthquake with a Baroque legacy in Sicily

21 February 2015 9:00 am

Syracuse is a handsome place, steeped in a rich historical broth. At the tip sits Ortygia, an island offshoot, which…

Prue Leith’s diary: I want to be green, but I’ve got some flights to take first…

18 October 2014 9:00 am

‘Please God, make me good, but not yet.’ I know the feeling. As I get older and more deeply retired,…

Ancient & Modern: the rumour mill

19 July 2014 9:00 am

Geoffrey Dickens’s ancient dossier of (alleged) paedophiles in high places cannot be found among the 138 miles of government files,…