Thomas Hardy
How do authors’ gardens inspire them?
A sumptuous coffee-table book in which writers from Henry James to Frances Hodgson Burnett are briefly glimpsed while passing through the beautiful spaces that outlast them
The joy of wigs
I thought, or anyway hoped, that once I’d finished the chemotherapy I would spring back to vitality. Seven weeks on…
The joy of the Great War memoir
Harley Granville-Barker, actor, director, playwright, manager and critic, was a pasha of the Edwardian London stage. As a director, his…
It's amazing how little insight Paul McCartney has into the Beatles' genius
The Paul people are out in force these days. A New Yorker profile, a book and a new documentary have…
Wishful drinking: pubs have always been good at bending the rules
Pubs have always been good at bending the rules
Andrew Marr: Scotland is slipping away from the Union
Staying in Britain for the summer has been, in many ways, entirely glorious. We have zigzagged from Shropshire through Derbyshire…
Up close and personal with Thomas Hardy
I walked in out of the rain, dripping, and sat down beside the fire on the primitive high-backed settle. ‘Is…
Low life
On Saturday night, I toddled up to the village hall for the fish-and-chip supper, quiz night and raffle — bring…
Ferdinand Mount picks out the plums nicely
Book reviews, John Updike once wrote, ‘perform a clear and desired social service: they excuse us from reading the books…
The marabou defecation was so voluminous that the sapeur was beyond salvation
Nairobi Nairobi’s old avenues were designed to be wide enough for a wagon and several span of oxen to U-turn…
Larkin’s misty parks and moors — in all their lacerating beauty
When Philip Larkin went up to St John’s College, Oxford, in the early 1940s, he found himself in a world…
Dorset is a palliative for the human condition
Do-orzaat. Dorset is part of L’Angleterre profonde. It is possible to find evidence of modernity, but only in limited areas.…
Far from the Madding Crowd reviewed: a proper film with proper acting and a proper story
Firstly, a message to all Marvel fanboys: there is nothing for you here. Nothing. No CGI, no endless battles, no…
Fifty Shades of Grey, review: ‘Use a condom!’ my sister shouted
And so, in the end, I went with my sister, Toni, to see Fifty Shades of Grey and we saw…
