Grandmother’s footsteps
The Island that Dared, by Dervla Murphy Up the airy mountain, down the rushy glen, where the deuce can we…
View ArticleLiving the legend
My Judy Garland Life, by Susie Boyt The story of Judy Garland is a magnificent example of the truth that…
View ArticleDarwin — from worms to collops
By all accounts a modest and retiring example of his species, Charles Darwin would surely have been more astonished than…
View ArticleNot so serene
Is there anything original left to say about Venice? Probably not, but that doesn’t stop the books from coming, tied…
View ArticleBach’s life examined
Music all too easily disarms our critical faculties. Composers need protection from those grovelling adorers who refuse to distinguish good…
View ArticleFollow your star
In these straitened times it looks as if a great many more hours of most people’s days will have to…
View ArticleWizard of the Baroque
Not content with being the greatest sculptor of his age and one of its most gifted architects, Gian Lorenzo Bernini…
View ArticleA holy terror
In the summer of 1520, Michelangelo Buonarotti wrote a letter of recommendation on behalf of his protégé, the painter Sebastiano…
View ArticleBehind the masque
British royalty, considered from a purely mechanistic angle, cannot function adequately without music. Deprived of marching bands, trumpeters and choristers…
View Article… and history in the Welsh Marches
The Welsh Marches, gloriously unvisited amid their wooded hills and swift-flowing streams, have remained mysteriously off-limits to the sort of…
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