Arts and Culture

Why do we have words that sound the same but are spelt differently? Because, in Old English, they sounded different too

The Red Baron shot down a total of 80 allied aircraft in a flying career that made his name immortal both in aerial combat and the history of aviation itself

We are entering asparagus season. I love it, earthy and nutty as it is

How an unstarry, violent story of crime and redemption with echoes of the classic policiers cleaned up at France’s Oscars

Painstakingly plotted, the Swedish author’s bestselling debut Collected Works weighs in at 733 pages – over a quarter of a million words

A new show at the National Gallery maps startling changes in pre-first world war European art

After a brutal clampdown on their freedom, Iranian photographers have had to find new ways to express themselves

The Brexit architect follows in a long line of stage heroes who are morally questionable or downright loathsome

Noel Coward's play is funny now in a way that is tragic

The genius of a mysterious and overlooked painter is revealed at a new exhibition in The Hague

The Breton language of northern France does not derive from Gaulish – it has its roots in migration from Devon and Cornwall

John Huston and Jean-Paul Sartre came together to create a film based on the life of Sigmund Freud, but the project was scuppered by irreconcilable creative differences

The satirical concept of immortal but increasingly senile people in Gulliver’s Travels highlights the societal impact of an ageing population

Burnley’s triumphant return to the Premier League has been masterminded by the son of a refugee who became Belgium’s first elected black mayor

Grandbrothers’ new release Late Reflections matches the landmark’s emotional heft

Morris dancing, folk music and other English traditions are making a comeback. And the new followers are a diverse bunch

A change in the climate between the years 1000 and 1200 led to profound changes across the continent – and the world

At a rundown Paris fleapit in the 1950s and 60s, it didn’t matter if you had no money – you could pay the rent by using art

Fifty years after his death, the artist’s misogyny is the most pressing aspect of his legacy

It is apparent that Picasso’s name comes to the lips of singers with the same ease as “Jesus” or “Elvis”

How Frederick Forsyth’s bestselling thriller became the last word in political assassination cinema

The humble life of St Francis of Assisi continues to inspire valuable paintings, showcased in an upcoming exhibition at the National Gallery

Christianity may have driven out the old religion, but old English speakers still kept part of its language intact

The German-born artist created his melancholy and nightmarish Europe After the Rain II during the most frightening and uncertain period of his own life

In the literary snake pit, writers and critics tend to either suck up to one another frantically, or bite down hard so as to inject their venom yet deeper

This musical is a joyous explosion of colour, light and good humour

There’s almost certainly a great play to be written about gay black and mixed-race men but this sadly isn’t it

Unsung Inglourious Basterds actor Denis Ménochet encounters more terror in the countryside in Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beasts

The diminutive Italian actress, star of La Strada and Nights of Cabiria, was more than a match for her husband, director Federico Fellini, on and off set

We labelled her an ‘enemy alien’ but the Austrian-born studio potter’s work helped reinvent a drab postwar Britain

The late Israeli actor and singer performed If I Were a Rich Man more than 3,500 times in multiple productions of Fiddler on the Roof

When Suella Braverman said Britain was being ‘invaded’, she was right – but not in the way she meant. It’s been happening for centuries