Sicily
How a Liberal MP's inability to draw led him to invent photography
William Henry Fox Talbot had many accomplishments. He was Liberal MP for Chippenham; at Cambridge he won a prize for…
Norman Sicily was a multicultural paradise – but it didn’t last long
There are lessons to be learned from the disintegration of this once majestic multicultural Norman kingdom, says Martin Gayford
Is the Slender-billed curlew already extinct?
This unusual book is beautifully written, produced and illustrated, but its subject — the small Slender-billed curlew — is strangely…
Galleries are getting bigger - but is there enough good art to put in them?
Martin Gayford recommends the exhibitions to see — and to avoid — over the coming year
The world’s most wanted people-smuggler
The godfather of people-trafficking is an Ethiopian called Ghermay Ermias. But it’s unlikely we’ll ever catch him
Palermo: city of jasmine and dark secrets
The Arabs invaded Sicily in the ninth century, leaving behind mosques and pink-domed cupolas. In the Sicilian capital of Palermo,…
‘Bewitching’: Krol Roger at the Royal Opera reviewed
‘What gives your lies such power?’ asks the bewildered Sicilian leader in Szymanowski’s opera Krol Roger. The question is addressed…
How Lampedusa copes when the migrant ships come in
Encounters with those who have risked their lives to cross the Mediterranean
An earthquake with a Baroque legacy in Sicily
Syracuse is a handsome place, steeped in a rich historical broth. At the tip sits Ortygia, an island offshoot, which…
Prue Leith’s diary: I want to be green, but I’ve got some flights to take first…
‘Please God, make me good, but not yet.’ I know the feeling. As I get older and more deeply retired,…
Ancient & Modern: the rumour mill
Geoffrey Dickens’s ancient dossier of (alleged) paedophiles in high places cannot be found among the 138 miles of government files,…
