Literature
Sex and violence: Titian’s Metamorphoses
The National Gallery are reopening their headline 2020 exhibition on 8th July
Brideshead Revisited at 75
In its combination of glacial beauty and lovelorn desperation, Brideshead Revisited speaks to all readers, Alexander Larman writes
‘You’ll be a Man, my son!’
Rudyard Kipling’s (in)famous poem “If” reverberates with valuably relevant and humane advice for 2020 Britain
Decline of the English novel
Bereft of God and middle class values, authors are left with identity politics
Jane’s profound piety
Jeremy Black reviews Jane Austen: Writing, Society, Politics, by Tom Keymer
Sebastian Horsley: equal parts Byronic dandy, Dickensian grotesque and Wildean poseur
Alexander Larman remembers his time with the decadent author, Sebastian Horsley, 10 years after his death
What the Dickens!
150 years since Dickens’s death, Alexander Larman evaluates the memorialised writer’s questionable politics
Me, Myself and I
The hip young authors who write about their greatest obsession – themselves
Rail tracks
Tom Chesshyre on songs and poetry inspired by trains
Where is the Waugh or Wodehouse of our time?
Comic writing: light distraction or social mirror?
Musical no man’s lands
Two violin concertos fail to inspire
Rock as ritual
Just as Taylor has nailed the emotional lexicon of her people, Finn has nailed it for his
The betrayal of Charlie Hebdo
The French intelligentsia has reneged on promises of fearless free speech and embraced a pervasive culture of censorship
On the deceptive use of words
We must be very careful with redefinitions of commonly understood words
Venice’s tortuous tourist tax
How much public money has been wasted on a scheme which will be quietly retired?
The royals needs better PR
We have seen too many royal disasters
Synaesthesia
Robert Thicknesse, Lucy Lethbridge, and Yehuda Shapiro return for a mind bending and spirit expanding episode of Critical Mash
Beethoven: Nine symphonies+ (Decca)
This Beethoven gift set is not for Christmas. It is for life
The cowards, the pretenders and the woman-haters
Awkwardness is no excuse for not supporting the gender-critical cause
Dream teens
Promise is no guarantee of a long career
Bevis Marks Synagogue
Britain’s oldest purpose-built synagogue faces a new, more insidious threat
