Notes on…

Holiday reading

16 July 2016 9:00 am

Holidays are a welcome chance to lose ourselves between the covers of a book, especially for those of us who…

Be like Jimmy Stewart: rediscover a classic

Holiday reading

14 July 2016 1:00 pm

Holidays are a welcome chance to lose ourselves between the covers of a book, especially for those of us who…

Passing through Bologna

9 July 2016 9:00 am

Sooner or later, no matter where you are travelling on Italian railways, you are likely to pass through Bologna Centrale.…

Bologna’s core: grand in the renaissance manner

Passing through Bologna

7 July 2016 1:00 pm

Sooner or later, no matter where you are travelling on Italian railways, you are likely to pass through Bologna Centrale.…

The Tour de France

2 July 2016 9:00 am

On Saturday at Mont St Michel, the 103rd edition of the Tour de France begins, and the favourite to win…

Extraterrestrial invader: Lance Armstrong

The Tour de France

30 June 2016 1:00 pm

On Saturday at Mont St Michel, the 103rd edition of the Tour de France begins, and the favourite to win…

The misery of black tie

25 June 2016 3:00 am

Men don’t look good in black tie. They might think that they look like Sean Connery in Dr No, but…

Warning: black tie will not make you feel like this

The misery of black tie

23 June 2016 2:00 am

Men don’t look good in black tie. They might think that they look like Sean Connery in Dr No, but…

Gatton Park

18 June 2016 9:00 am

Gatton Park is probably Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown’s least famous landscape. It is tucked away near Reigate Hill, just beyond the…

Capability and mustard: Gatton Park

Gatton Park

16 June 2016 1:00 pm

Gatton Park is probably Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown’s least famous landscape. It is tucked away near Reigate Hill, just beyond the…

Not quite Dubai yet: Ascot racegoers last year

Royal Ascot

9 June 2016 1:00 pm

It’s time to scuttle under a rock if you are a Folkestone or Cornish crab: 7,000 of them will be…

Live like a laird: Brodie Castle

The saddest, most romantic view in Britain

4 June 2016 9:00 am

Is there a more forlornly romantic spot in Britain than the moors east of Inverness where the Jacobite dream died?…

Live like a laird: Brodie Castle

Brodie Castle

2 June 2016 1:00 pm

Is there a more forlornly romantic spot in Britain than the moors east of Inverness where the Jacobite dream died?…

A kind of posthumous existence: a death mask of Keats, sold at auction for £16,100 in 1996

A beautiful place to die: Italy and the Romantic poets

28 May 2016 9:00 am

People can be mightily protective of their Romantic poets. When I worked at the Keats Shelley House, overlooking the Spanish…

A kind of posthumous existence: a death mask of Keats, sold at auction for £16,100 in 1996

The Romantic poets

26 May 2016 1:00 pm

People can be mightily protective of their Romantic poets. When I worked at the Keats Shelley House, overlooking the Spanish…

‘His operas offer a straightforward experience’

Verdi’s works are more entertainment than art

21 May 2016 9:00 am

Verdi has a peculiar if not unique place in the pantheon of great composers. If you love classical music at…

‘His operas offer a straightforward experience’

Verdi

19 May 2016 1:00 pm

Verdi has a peculiar if not unique place in the pantheon of great composers. If you love classical music at…

The demise of bullfighting has been predicted for 100 years, yet it lives on

Is bullfighting on its last gasp?

14 May 2016 9:00 am

Looking at the programme for the feria of San Isidro in Madrid this month (bullfights are being held on 31…

The demise of bullfighting has been predicted for 100 years, yet it lives on

Bullfighting

12 May 2016 1:00 pm

Looking at the programme for the feria of San Isidro in Madrid this month (bullfights are being held on 31…

Gentlest and sweetest of dogs

Beautiful, wilful, never dull: in praise of Clumber spaniels

7 May 2016 9:00 am

For the first time in more than 30 years we have no Clumber spaniel. We have had five: Henry, Judith,…

Is my plant Pinterest-ready?

It started with a cardboard box: discovering the joys of indoor gardening

30 April 2016 9:00 am

A year or so ago, I inherited a cardboard box filled with plants. It was an offshoot from an enormous…

Is this LA?: Dilapidated deco in Downtown

Indoor gardening

28 April 2016 1:00 pm

A year or so ago, I inherited a cardboard box filled with plants. It was an offshoot from an enormous…

Strange fruit: Bosch mixes scripture and folklore

Want your children to love art? Start with Hieronymus Bosch

23 April 2016 9:00 am

If you hope to inspire an appreciation of Renaissance art in your children, look to Hieronymus Bosch. Ideally, your children…

Strange fruit: Bosch mixes scripture and folklore

The delights of Hieronymus Bosch

21 April 2016 1:00 pm

If you hope to inspire an appreciation of Renaissance art in your children, look to Hieronymus Bosch. Ideally, your children…

Pack mentality: it’s amazing what people reveal

My day as a radio tarot reader

16 April 2016 9:00 am

It’s 8.57 on a Friday evening and I’m at home, waiting for an obscure American radio talk show to come…