British Art
A monumental work on British buildings
Gavin Stamp’s posthumous book is a magnificent tour d’horizon, a bible of the styles available to architects between the wars
God save The Kinks
How did four ornery lads rearing up from the post-war English underclass become national treasures?
The sad state of British film
Why do we accept comfortable irrelevance?
Ralph Vaughan Williams: Symphonies 7 & 9 (Hallé)
VW will never catch on beyond Anglophiles — ask not the reason why
We have forgotten the titans of British cinema
It has fallen to Scorsese to rescue the reputation of Powell and Pressburger
Genuine English opera
‘Peter Grimes’ labours under the weight of national anxieties
Modern-day Ealing comedy
A quintessentially English spirit of wry rebellion lives on in two new films
What do the BAFTAs really stand for?
The awards used to be entertainingly eccentric
Stumbling blocks
Owen Hatherley offers a vital but frequently flawed guide to post-war British architecture
Eric Ravilious: a talent too long ignored
Ravilious’s ethereal, understated paintings are quietly dazzling
Light from darkness
Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family and Social Class by Rob Henderson
The other Camus
The controversial author’s work is filled not just with anger but with autumnal regret
Giants and pygmies
Some stop-gap leaders of the opposition were never intended to be potential prime ministers
The secrets of familial suffering
Recovering from the burden of generational pain can be a private act
The slick glide through the institutions
When values are outsourced to third-party organisations, everybody suffers
Good for the sole
April calls for a recipe that combines the incoming and departing treats
The cost of dissent
Brave women have sacrificed a lot to stand up for their gender critical beliefs
Murders for February
Hitler, Harlem and the high-life feature in this month’s murder mystery haul
Why the OBR is wrong about Brexit
The OBR’s Brexit analysis is based on flawed comparisons and unreasonable predictions
Tragicomedy at the UN
The limp United Nations cannot be trusted to support the victims of tyranny
The spectre of the past
The “Great English Ghost Story” offers a form of comfort and is rooted in the ache of nostalgia for a more elegant era
