I love the amorous mayhem of Handel’s operas, but have always had my doubts about his oratorios, especially the Messiah. First there’s the bossy compulsion to stand during the “Hallelujah” chorus, just... Read more »
âMy dream is that peopleâs eyes will be opened instinctively to their surroundings,â says Simon Jenkins at the end of his new book. âI want people to point at buildings, laugh, cry... Read more »
Years ago, a man who was then my fiancé gave me a mourning ring, inscribed with the name and dates of birth and death of a Frenchwoman who lived in the mid-eighteenth... Read more »
The Hugo Awards are presented each August for notable achievements in science fiction and science fantasy published in English over the previous year. Widely considered the most prestigious award in the... Read more »
Eric Hazan, a lifelong Parisian who died in June, wrote several books about his hometown, with a particular focus on the class politics of the built environment. In Balzacâs Paris he revisits... Read more »
Amid the sunshine and wild celebrations of Friday 25 August 1944, the day the Germans surrendered control of Paris, Charles de Gaulle declared the city to have been âliberated by itselfâ, with... Read more »
To screenwriters in the 1950s, she was a major power player, fighting for pay rises and striking rights. To the Hollywood studio heads, she was “the meanest bitch in town”. Now, a... Read more »
In 1986, two catastrophic events occurred on either side of the cold war divide that shocked the world. On 28 January, 73 seconds after takeoff, the US space shuttle Challenger broke apart... Read more »
America’s unseen book bans: the long history of censorship in prisons May 09 2024 Tens of thousands of books are banned in US prisons, in an often arbitrary process that limits education... Read more »