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
A Gatsby Master Class in London’s Theatres
With the film on the way, Gatsby is re-imagined in London’s theatres
Boswell’s Grand Tour
Come summer, Europe buckles under the annual migration of students now roosting at their universities. According to the Institute…
Happiness Paints White
You can paint the spaces around it, that is to say, but not it. For centuries happiness has been…
The Fall and Rise of a Familiar Curtain
One February evening in 1982, leaving London’s Adelphi Theatre by the stage door, I am keenly aware of huddled,…
England’s Crimea
There are references to the Crimean War all over London: Sebastopol Road, Inkerman Terrace, The Alma public house, and…
Thomas Mann and von Sternberg’s, The Blue Angel
Josef von Sternberg’s film The Blue Angel (1930) was supposedly based on Heinrich Mann’s novel Professor Unrat (literally: Professor…
Bringing Back Buchan
The works of John Buchan have returned to the bookshops to a remarkable degree in recent years – a…
Frank Lloyd Wright: An Architect who Believed in Personal Freedom
I came to appreciate Frank Lloyd Wright by a rather roundabout route. Most people take architecture for granted, especially…
The Nine Muses: Where Writers Get their Ideas
Current theories of creativity do not mention divine inspiration. It is not politically correct to suggest that the best…
Edmund Waller and Andrew Marvell: Two Poems Contrasted
Apart from the attention of specialists, Edmund Waller (1606-1687) is one of the lost voices of English poetry –…
Landscapes of Transformation: The Art of Harold Mockford
The surroundings are familiar – as all the landscapes are to me – and yet this difference forces me…
ArcelorMittal Orbit: The Middle of Nowhere
A deconstruction of London’s newest construction
Dad’s the Word
A dear friend of ours had just lost his wife. She died, after a traumatic, brief illness, of a…
Damascus, Aleppo and their ‘Battered Caravanserais’
The horror of what can only be considered nascent civil war in Syria, the frustration of the international community’s…
Animal Avenue: Surviving a Third-World Megacity
Had Darwin lived long enough to visit twenty-first-century Manila he may have been intrigued by Katipunan. Day and night…
No More Coteries
Literary London’s reviewers united to empty a bucket of ordure over Richard Bradford’s Martin Amis: The Biography last November.…
The Poetry of Egon Schiele
An introduction to three poems in translation by the Austrian painter, Egon Schiele
‘No-Management Style’: Boris’s Lack of Impact at City Hall
As the 2012 mayoral contest enters its final stages, it is tempting to play up the differences between the…
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