Arts and Culture

PETER TRUDGILL assesses just how (il)logical certain languages are. Over the years there have been plenty of people who have not hesitated to assert that French is a “very logical language”, the implication being that other languages are less so. But it is actually rather easy to point to aspects of French which do not […]

The complex history of the eastern Mediterranean means there are individuals who have defied their ‘national identities’. PETER TRUDGILL reports. Many people in southeastern Europe would agree that it is correct to say that Turks are a Muslim people who speak Turkish and that Greeks are a Christian people who speak Greek. That is certainly […]

TIM WALKER reviews The Upstart Crow at Gielgud Theatre, London. There’s a kind of comedy – and writer of comedies – that makes you think how funny a line is, but, for one reason or another, you don’t laugh. The Upstart Crow is such a comedy and Ben Elton is such a writer. I don’t […]

SOPHIA DEBOICK on a genre which tells the story of a city – and a nation – through the good times and the bad. “Without the streets or dusks of Buenos Aires, a tango cannot be written.” This was how Jorge Luis Borges, Buenos Aries’ – and Argentina’s – most famous poet summed up the […]

A play which is all about saluting strong women was recreated at Young Vic Theatre in London. 7. Zephryn Taitte in Nora A Doll’s House (c) Marc Brenner – Credit: Archant When Henrik Ibsen wrote A Doll’s House in 1879, he recognised the fight for gender equality was never going to be a quick and […]

CLAUDIA PRITCHARD on a stunning new show of paintings from a moment in history when the country and its rulers were at their most self-aggrandising. peter lely self portrait – Credit: Archant Upon the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, and faced with the task of restating its majesty, Charles II appointed a spin doctor. […]

PETER TRUDGILL on the correct use of ‘best’ – a grammar ‘rule’ it is safe to ignore. After a football match it is often said by those talking about the event that “the best team won” – or in the case of a losing team managed by Jose Mourinho, that the best team did not […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY on Snow, Dog, Foot, a moving novel about living life alone in a complex existence high up in the Alps. Sometimes the life of a hermit can be a very appealing prospect. Not being answerable to anyone, living entirely self-sufficiently and feeling completely separated from the comings, goings and machinations of the rest […]

TIM WALKER reviews Endgame/Rough for Theatre II at The Old Vic Theatre, London. Endgame/Rough for Theatre II. Photo: contributed – Credit: Archant Stephen Unwin, in his excellent book So You Want To Be A Theatre Director?, came as close as anyone to defining what it is to give an effective performance on stage. “The good […]

Once a byword for glamour and exuberance, the Chinese city was effectively silenced for much of the 20th century. But now it is becoming a centre for music publishing and distribution, says Sophia Deboick. The financial district of Pudong in Shanghai. Photo: Getty Images – Credit: AFP via Getty Images Few places have been subject […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY runs his eye over the ever-growing range of literary podcasts Back in the olden days of broadcasting you’d struggle to find much in the way of literary discussion or representation coming through the ether. On television you’d get the odd parasol-twirling adaptation of a Regency novel, jowly men in heavy tweed jackets sitting […]

The French town may not have produced much of its own musical heritage, yet it boasts one of the greatest venues in the world. SOPHIA DEBOICK reports. The atmosphere of a venue can make the difference between a so-so musical experience and one that speaks to the soul. There are no more affecting venues than […]

TIM WALKER reflects on the National Theatre’s sprawling, challenging, and at times scintillating, new play. A play begins life with a reading, and, certainly so far as commercial theatre is concerned, this can be a brutal experience. Actors give their time for nominal fees on the basis that it may or may not ever get […]

JASON SOLOMONS talks to the director of a new film about a little-known journalist who rooted out one of the 20th century’s biggest scandals For all the many film adaptations that his books have inspired, depictions of George Orwell himself on screen remain rare. He features in new release Mr Jones, however, played by English […]

SOHPIA DEBOICK on how the Yorkshire city, unbound by fashion, political orthodoxy or gender division, spawned a look and sound that lasted. Leeds loomed largest in rock mythology when the Who’s landmark Live at Leeds (1970) was recorded at the unlikely venue of the university’s parquet-floored refectory. The record was seen as marking a return […]

A talented group of actors do their best in the most hideous of circumstances. Southwark Playhouse, London, until February 22 Sir Christopher Lee once told me that all actors get to appear in terrible productions every now and again, but the trick is never to be terrible in them. The late actor’s sage words occurred […]

The meaning of the word have has changed over the centuries to denote more dynamic activities, says PETER TRUDGILL At Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, passengers are often urged – in announcements made by Dutch people speaking English – to keep their boarding-passes ready. At British airports, passengers are generally asked to have their boarding-passes ready. American […]

The great city is known for melding different cultural influences, says SOPHIA DEBOICK, but that does not mean it lacks a voice of its own. Mumbai is the entertainment capital of India, the home of a film industry that has become one of the country’s cultural touchstones. Yet Bollywood, like the city itself, is the […]

A new film, to be broadcast on Holocaust Memorial Day, tells the little-known story of a group of children taken from the death camps to the Lake District. JASON SOLOMONS talks to the team behind this moving story. A scene from the production. Photo: Helen Sloan / BBC – Credit: Archant In August 1945, Britain […]

RAGS the musical had a great deal of potential, but the latest performance was an open-heart surgery gone wrong, writes TIM WALKER. Often considered to be one of the worst songs of all time, MacArthur Park has a special place in my heart. Jimmy Webb wrote a big, bold and beautiful score, but also the […]

TIM WALKER reviews Coming Clean – a performance at Trafalgar Studios in London until February 1st. If there’s one actress it’s always enlightening to interview, it’s Dame Eileen Atkins. “Infidelity,” she told me, “is one of the last things you should fall out with someone over.” That’s not the modus vivendi agreed by Tony (Lee […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY profiles on the Frenchman rescued from obscurity by a chance discovery in a Normandy dairy shed. By the spring of 1929 Jean-Placide Mauclaire had grown used to being given old reels of film. The previous year he had opened Studio 28, an art house cinema in the Montmartre district of Paris that quickly […]

The city’s legendarily sweaty pub circuit has produced some unforgettable rock sounds, some macho, some political and some sentimental. SOPHIA DEBOICK reports. For thousands for years, Sydney was the dominion of the Eora nation, but it took only 100 years for that to be irrevocably changed and for the rich musical culture of indigenous Australians […]

The great European astronomer Caroline Herschel discovered more than eight comets. CHARLIE CONNELLY adds to her star-borne legacy “At the heavens there is no getting, for the high roofs of the opposite houses.” It was Boxing Day, 1822, when Caroline Herschel wrote these words in a letter to her nephew. She was 72 years old […]

The German city has had a long association with elegance and fashion, and a more recent one with ground-breaking music. SOPHIA DEBOICK reports. Berlin might have a reputation as the gritty home of Germany’s musical cutting edge, but on the other side of the country is a small, chic city that has produced some of […]

PETER TRUDGILL on a rural region of Ireland where a dialect took root and remained for centuries The English language came into being in Britain, and spent its first 700 years on this island. When it did then start spreading beyond these shores, this was to the neighbouring island of Ireland. This first expansion of […]

TIM WALKER says theatre is vital for national morale – and lists his favourite musicals, dramas, and everything stage-centric from the last twelve months. This is the time of year when theatre critics get to say what productions they most enjoyed over the preceding 12 months, and, if you bear with me, I’ll come to […]

Privilege can have drawbacks, as one member of the Italian aristocracy who wanted to carve out her own legacy found. CHARLIE CONNELLY reports on the life of Maria Teresa de Filippis. Maria Teresa de Filippis was the youngest of five siblings, the daughter of an Italian count who had made a fortune in engineering. She […]

PETER TRUDGILL on the archipelago which helped develop the language now spoken in Greece. Great Britain started decolonising its imperial possessions in a significant way in 1947, when British India became the two independent states of India and Pakistan. But there is a very interesting example of British decolonisation which comes from well before that […]

SOPHIA DEBOICK on the sounds of the Scottish capital Princess Street Garden and Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh, Scotland When: 16 Jul 2015 – Credit: Archant In the 17th century, Scotland rediscovered itself, and Edinburgh was the centre of that rediscovery. The 1739 publication of A Treatise of Human Nature, by the city’s own David Hume heralded […]

TIM WALKER reviews a performance of the Three Sisters at the National Theatre. Quite possibly in response to the vacuity of the times in which we live, the National Theatre seems to have adopted a policy of staging very long, cerebral and earnest productions. Inua Ellams’ adaptation of Chekov’s Three Sisters – running to three […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY profiles the great Dane Victor Borge. During the last year of the 20th century Victor Borge played 60 concerts. He was 90 years old. His material, a mixture of deft musical sketches and parodies interspersed with drily humorous quips and monologues, hadn’t changed much since he first began performing it in his native […]