Stephen Spender

The ‘delishious’ letters of Lucian Freud

24 September 2022 9:00 am

Love him or loathe him, Lucian Freud was a maverick genius whose life from the off was as singular as…

Marlene Dietrich, George Orwell and the rebirth of a nation

20 February 2016 9:00 am

The purpose of Lara Feigel’s book is to describe the ‘political mission of reconciliation and restoration’ in the devastated cities…

Members of the Hitler Youth clear debris after an air raid on Berlin, August 1944

The swastika was always in plain sight

24 October 2015 9:00 am

Ordinary Germans under the Third Reich did have wills of their own, argues Dominic Green. Most actively embraced Nazi ideology, and were aware of the extermination of the Jews. As the war worsened for them, what did they think they were fighting for?

Still from the documentary ‘Palio’: a medieval rite at once nonsensical and puerile, and yet profoundly alive and meaningful

Palio exposes the bribery and violence that lies at the heart of Siena’s lawless ritual

19 September 2015 8:00 am

Siena’s Palio is steeped in violence, bribery and corruption. But it matters to its people more than anything, says Jasper Rees

Lankily elegant and exquisitely dressed: Peter Watson (right) with Oliver Messel

The Mad Boy, Peter Watson, Cecil Beaton and the limo — by Sofka Zinovieff

23 May 2015 9:00 am

It would not have surprised their friends in the 1930s when Peter Watson had a fling with my grandfather, Robert…