Arts and Culture

Alexander the Great spread the language far and wide. But where did it last the longest?

CHARLIE CONNELLY on new efforts by the US right to burn or ban books they consider dangerous.

This Jane Austen parody is hard to critique... as the cast has clearly predicted every criticism they could receive.

Zadie Smith's modern, relocated take on Chaucer's The Wife of Bath is a bold reimagining.

Ultravox sung about Vienna, Freddie Mercury duetted with Montserrat Caballe on Barcelona and The Stranglers told us all roads lead to Rome but Suede's Europe is Our Playground couldn't be more wrong today

Romanian director Radu Jude didn't let Covid get in the way of making his latest film. In fact, he turned it to his advantage.

Planting oaks preserve Spain's traditional landscape - and the planet.

The Sicilian city is putting its mafia controlled past behind it and forging a new reputation for art and integration.

BONNIE GREER on why the Bronzes has provided her with a human connection - giving her solace and refuge.

Food writer JOSH BARRIE brings readers a recipe from Cocotte, a health-focused rotisserie restaurant dreamt up by a young Frenchman.

PETER TRUDGILL on the linguistic device common in many European languages that can only go so far in English.

WILL SELF on attending a speed awareness course for the second time.

For all his undoubted literary genius, Marcel Proust was an underwhelming dinner guest.

The German writer was one of Europe's greatest literary talents, even if she did sleep through the fall of the Berlin Wall

Composer and academic Mary Ann Tedstone Glover has brought the music of the Roman empire back to life.

The film adaptation of Nella Larsen's novel is a sumptuous and seductive tale of segregation.

A Samuel Beckett double-bill portrays the challenges women face across the different stages of their life with triumph.

The show's ending may be sloppy, yet sentimental, but it's the production's looks that captivates audiences.

Football is no longer a game for the game's sake. ROB HUGHES writes how fans can but dream of it returning to this.

A new exhibition of works by Pablo Bronstein couldn’t be more apt, as it reveals the ecological cost of material gratification.

Diego Maradona’s move to Sevilla in 1992 was supposed to be a rebirth. Instead, it resulted in more controversy and the start of a decline that ended with his death a year ago this month.

WILL SELF on the politics behind the nation's beloved baking show.

PETER TRUDGILL on the seemingly unstoppable use of US words and phrases in our daily lives.

Roxana Silbert adapts Marsha Norman's Pulitzer prize-winner novel for the stage to portray a sensitive issue superbly.

The show began it's life as a podcast. But, it simply doesn't translate to the stage.

The recently awarded Booker Prize is a very far cry from the early days of the competition.

A new exhibition of portrait paintings at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam shows how Renaissance artists captured their subjects almost as clearly as we can on our phones today.

The case of an Italian Cambridge graduate who was murdered in Egypt has attracted the attention of Amnesty International. But protests to keep Giulio Regeni’s death in the public eye were kick-started in earnest by a little-known team made up of refugees and prisoners.

Cinema audiences, used to sweet romantic movies and unchallenging fare, were in for a shock in late 1971 when a raft of violent and controversial films hit British screens

Before he got to Hollywood the filmmaker worked as a journalist in his native Europe. A new book tries to draw the links between his two careers.

WILL SELF on the latest production of the James Bond franchise.

She was the most Weimar of the Weimar figures, with scandal following her wherever she went.