Reviews
World-class snob, first-class diarist
Andrew Roberts says that in these diaries, Channon takes snobbery to a truly pathological level
Rehabilitation of a great stylist
Christopher Bray thinks Roth’s “novelist’s autobiography” is one of his most fizzing examinations of the stories that construct our various selves
Ravel, Dutilleux, Debussy: Quart de nuit (Deux-Elles)
Norman Lebrecht is left wanting more Dutilleux
An essential record
Norman Lebrecht reviews Shostakovich: Violin concertos 1&2, performed by Alina Ibragimova and the State Symphony Orchestra of Russia
To the streets, via the Crush Bar
Robert Thicknesse on Opera
Rave that runs out of puff
Summertime and the streaming is easy, but Netflix’s White Lines leaves Adam LeBor cold
Masterful tombstone for a tudor bruiser
Hannah Betts reviews The Mirror & The Light by Hilary Mantel
A puritan but not a fanatic
Simon Heffer reviews Providence Lost: The Rise and Fall of Cromwell’s Protectorate by Paul Lay
The poet and the patrician
Stephen Parkinson reviews The Fire is Upon Us: James Baldwin, William F Buckley Jr, and the debate over race in America, by Nicholas Buccola
War-war not jaw-jaw
Robert Hutton reviews Our Man in New York by Henry Hemming
Let’s at least agree rape is wrong
Fundamental feminist theories are under attack from within feminism itself
The court of hot air
We do not need human rights law to protect human rights or to maintain the rule of law
In the name of God, lead
The Prime Minister appears terrified of making a stand against racism in his own party
A great conductor leaves the stage
No conductor from China or Japan ever commanded world orchestras before Seiji Ozawa, and none has since matched his impact
Netherworld
The Dutch golden age could be anything but for the painters
Childhood reclaimed
Mobile phones have been constraining our kids’ imaginations — but it does not have to be this way
The lies of Sinn Fein
Sectarian smears against Unionists have been exposed as the falsehoods they always were. Will anyone bother to say sorry?
Why is the US facing a “crisis of credibility”?
It is a crisis that has been created by the hubris of the establishment
The meaning of Navalny’s death
This tragic event illustrates the cruelty and fragility of the Kremlin
The hidden cost of pronoun politeness
Using untruthful pronouns is not the same as complimenting a bad haircut
Fifth magician blues
He made the tea, he forged the autographs, and only once did he run out of plectrums
