Taylor Swift’s new album is exhausting
How to explain the supercharged star power of Taylor Swift? An undeniably gifted artist, Swift’s albums 1989, Folklore and Evermore,…
My Negroni-soaked lunch with Laurence Olivier
Breakfast is my preferred meal, in case you’re interested. I broke my fast this week with my walking laser-light of…
The Candidates
Dommaraju Gukesh triumphed in a thrilling final round at the Candidates Tournament in Toronto. The Indian talent, who is still…
Alone and defenceless: the tragic death of Captain Cook
Striding ashore unarmed showed courage that bordered on recklessness. But it was a kind of theatre Cook relished on his travels - and, famously, it didn’t always work
How to live off the land for a year
Could you live off the land for a year without buying a single thing to eat? This was the challenge…
What does Christian atheism mean?
Slavoj Žižek claims to value Christianity’s ‘dissident’ credentials, but his atheist vision of reality rests on assumptions repeatedly challenged by Jesus
Four female writers at the court of Elizabeth I
Of Ramie Targoff’s gifted quartet, Mary Sidney was particularly admired by her contemporaries for her translation of the Psalms into English verse
The circus provides perfect cover for espionage
As he flew his plane between circus acts across Germany in the 1930s, Cyril Bertram Mills gained vital aerial intelligence about the Nazis’ rearmament programme
Hero and villain: The Two Loves of Sophie Strom, by Sam Taylor, reviewed
A Jewish teenager is the victim of a Nazi arson attack in 1933. Alternative scenarios see him joining the French Resistance, and being recruited by the SS
Emily Dickinson was not such a recluse after all
Far from being closeted in her bedroom, her letters show that she was still travelling in her mid-thirties, and taking pleasure in gardening and the glories of nature
You could have built a tent city from all the red chinos: Aci by the River reviewed
The Thames cruise for which Handel composed his Water Music in 1717 famously went on until around 4 a.m. The…
The awkwardness of love in middle age: You Are Here, by David Nicholls, reviewed
A man and woman, both casualties of failed marriages, are attracted to one another on a walking holiday, but are strangely overcome by shyness
The latest Venice Biennale is ideologically and aesthetically bankrupt
Last week’s opening of the 60th edition of the Venice Biennale marks a watershed for the art world. In much…
Men, step away from the trainers
What is it with men and trainers? Or rather, men of a certain age and trainers. I’m still trying to…
‘I couldn’t afford loo roll’: Bruce Robinson on being skint, Zeffirelli’s advances and Withnail’s return
Bruce Robinson is ramming a huge log into the grate of his ancient fireplace in mud-clogged Herefordshire. He’s 77 and…
Must Paris reinvent itself?
Muriel Zagha 27 April 2024 9:00 am
The beautifully preserved, elitist metropolis now looks increasingly out of step with neighbouring capitals and may be forced to become more multicultural