Mysterious Disappearances: God, Money and the Musical Banks
Its name in raised stone lettering, at the end of an alleyway off Fleet Street, is all that is…
Thomas Mann’s ‘Disorder and Early Sorrow’: The Wounded Spirit
’Tis all in pieces, all coherence gone. – John Donne In Mann’s ‘Disorder and Early Sorrow’ (1925) the characters…
Othello, the Comedy
An extract from Mr. Foote’s Other Leg: Comedy, Tragedy and Murder in Georgian London (published by Picador, 11 October…
On Arabs and Ignorance
My father nearly died thirteen years before I was born. He was stabbed through the chest while out walking…
To Be a Pilgrim
Pilgrimage is in vogue at the moment. The numbers of pilgrims arriving at Mecca and Santiago de Compostela grow every…
Charlotte Mew: The Moon’s Dropped Child
It is likely that the case of Charlotte Mew is unique in the history of English poetry. A certain…
In the World, Not of the World: Glenn Gould’s Solitude Trilogy
Thirty years after his death: the pianist-turned-broadcaster.
Death and the Maiden
Did you know Ilina? She used to come here all the time and sit with us after we had…
The Consolations of Music: Così fan tutte
OPERA Così fan tutte, ossia La Scuola degli amanti (1790), Opera Holland Park, Holland Park, London, with the City…
Fog Returns to Channel
NON-FICTION The Country Formerly Known as Great Britain, Ian Jack, Vintage, 320pp, £9.99 (paperback) Being British: What’s Wrong with…
Akseli Gallen-Kallela and the Kalevala
PAINTING Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1865-1931): A Finnish Passion Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf, 1 June-9 September 2012 (Previously at Helsinki Art Museum…
Between a Craft and a Calling
FICTION Infinity: The Story of a Moment, Gabriel Josipovici, Carcanet Press, 128pp, £12.95 (paperback) Infinity: The Story of a…
Sylvia, Shakespeare and Shamans
POETRY Poet and Critic: The Letters of Ted Hughes and Keith Sagar, edited by Keith Sagar, The British Library,…
A Chinese Bail-Out
HISTORY Escape from Hong Kong: Admiral Chan Chak’s Christmas Day Dash 1941, Tim Luard, Hong Kong University Press, 320pp,…
The War Is Far from Finished: A Trio of Books about Iraq
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS Setback of the Century: 11 September Cracks on the Mirrors of the Iraq War, Fatih Abdulsalam, Xlibris,…
The Legacy of Catullus: Did a Prayer to a Vestal Virgin ‘Save’ his Naughty Bits?
The Latin poet Catullus, an acquaintance of Julius Caesar, lived thirty years or longer between 84 BC and no…
Life after Hungary
They say a Hungarian can go into a revolving door behind you and come out in front, and it…
Meeting Robert Graves
In the summer of 1970, when driving around Majorca, I stopped for a few days in the remote coastal village…
Fear of the Self: Japanese Literature’s Tragic Hero
Akutagawa Ryūnosuke, or to follow Western appellative conventions, Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, is one of Japan’s literary institutions. His stories are studied…
Invisible Influences: Eardley Knollys, Frank Coombs and the Storran Gallery in the 1930s
When Eardley Knollys bought the Storran Gallery in central London in spring 1936 with Frank Coombs as his partner…
Delius: The Reluctant Englishman
On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring sounds like a perfect celebration of the English countryside. In fact, its…
The Welsh Poppy Flame of the Sun: A Tribute to Raymond Garlick
Raymond Garlick, who died in Cardiff on 19 March 2011, was an important and influential figure in support of…
The Courage of the Conquistador: Sigmund Freud and the Mapping of the Unconscious
Since I have been studying the unconscious I have become so interesting to myself. A pity that one keeps…
Afghanistan: Mara Yod Ast
A lyrical depiction of the country before it was ravaged by war
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