Arts
Le French bashing has spread to France. Are things really that bad?
The popular sport has spread to France. Are things really that bad, wonders Jonathan Meades
Fortune tellers, pound shops and Orville: why I love Blackpool
Fortune tellers, pound shops and Orville: it’s easy to take the piss out of Blackpool, but William Cook loves it
Agents will be queuing up to sign this 26-year-old baritone from Sichuan
The Royal Academy of Music’s end-of-term opera can always be looked forward to because it never disappoints: the repertoire is…
Panto season has arrived - and even the kids are turning their nose up at it
‘What is a panto?’ I asked my companion at the Hackney Empire’s Saturday matinee. ‘It’s basically a really bad play,’…
If you like bland films full of blondes, you’ll love Kon-Tiki
Kon-Tiki is a dramatisation of Thor Heyerdahl’s 4,300-mile, 101-day journey across the Pacific by balsa-wood raft, which took place in…
Why we love hating the music we hate as much as we love loving the music we love
It’s all gone now, of course. Not just the magazines themselves, but the legendary bile of old-school rock criticism
Royal Ballet’s Don Quixote: Carlos Acosta is too brainy with this no-brain ballet
One feels the pang of impending failure whenever the Royal Ballet ventures like a deluded Don Quixote into a periodic…
How to win MasterChef - and why salmon is the fish of the devil
If ever my near-neighbour William Sitwell is killed in a bizarre shooting accident and I end up taking his place…
Children’s radio was once at the core of the BBC - now it’s all but disappeared
It was a bit of a surprise to hear Jarvis Cocker, the embodiment of cool and former frontman of Pulp,…
Culture buff
The arts are alive and well heading into 2015
No brainer
One feels the pang of impending failure whenever the Royal Ballet ventures like a deluded Don Quixote into a periodic…
The power of hate
With seconds to spare, I think I have chanced upon my music book of the year. Such choices are always…
The power of hate
With seconds to spare, I think I have chanced upon my music book of the year. Such choices are always…
Sex, lies and El Sistema
An explosive new book uncovers abuse at the heart of one of classical music’s most revered institutions. Damian Thompson investigates
The death of the life class
‘Love of the human form’, writes the painter John Lessore, ‘must be the origin of that peculiar concept, the Life…
We must never again let this 19th century Norwegian master slip into oblivion
You won’t have heard of Peder Balke. Yet this long-neglected painter from 19th-century Norway is now the subject of a…
Why Church music is back in vogue - and squeaky-gate music has had its day
One of the growth areas of contemporary music is in setting sacred texts. It might be thought that I had…
Sacred Monsters, Sadler’s Wells: Sylvie Guillem and Akram Kham’s captivating final boogie
I’m dashing between dance theatres at the moment and there’s just so much to tell you about. I could linger…
Forget the Germans. It’s the French who made classical music what it is
The poor French. When we think of classical music, we always think of the Germans. It’s understandable. Instinctive. Ingrained. But…
The recruitment company to go to if you've got no arms or legs
When to launch? For impresarios, this is the eternal dilemma. Autumn is so crowded with press nights that producers are…
St. Vincent: too much lovability and not enough roguishness from Bill Murray
Is Bill Murray fit for sainthood? Certainly his fans have him figure as some sort of lesser divinity, maybe one…
BBC1’s Remember Me: the curious case of the killer Yorkshire taps
BBC1’s authentically spooky three-part ghost story Remember Me hasn’t yet revealed what’s really going on in that gloomy Yorkshire town.…
Why you have to listen to this year's Reith Lectures
Each year the Reith Lectures come round as Radio 4’s annual assertion of intellectual authority, fulfilling the BBC’s original aspiration…
Culture buff
We’ve established that capital city festivals are for other people. Their principal purpose is to bring people into the city,…
Dance One last dance
I’m dashing between dance theatres at the moment and there’s just so much to tell you about. I could linger…
