On Stage, On Screen
First photography, then books – and now not even theatre can resist the influence of the digital age. When National Theatre Live broadcast its first performance of Phèdre in 2009, […]
Category Archives: Culture
Behind the Pseudonym
That J. K. Rowling would embark on the next phase of her writing career under a pseudonym was almost a foregone conclusion. In July last year, the best-selling living novelist […]
The Craze for Crime Fiction
If there was ever a genre of fiction that’s kept at the very height of fashion, it’s the whodunnit. Scout the shelves of any bookshop, scan the listings of the […]
450 Years of Shakespeare
Last year, two computer scientists devised an algorithm to establish the most important people in the whole of human history. In fourth place, behind Jesus, Napolean and Muhammad, was William Shakespeare. […]
The Fascination with Nordic Noir
Like television’s answer to the Viking invasion, Scandinavian drama is triumphing in Britain. Ever since Stieg Larsson’s novel The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo became an international bestseller in 2008, our screens […]
Donna Tartt: Reviving the Old-Fashioned Artist
Whoever said ‘Only an idiot would try to get rich by writing a book’ touched on a kind of reality. We’ve all seen how the greatest of artists can lurk […]
CBA with the CBE
Poor Victoria Beckham. Not only was the Christmas family holiday in the Caribbean ‘ruined’ by unfortunate weather, but her husband, fully expecting to become Sir. David in the New Year […]
The UK’s True City of Culture
So Hull has been unveiled as the UK City of Culture 2017. When I first visited last year, I stepped into a taxi from the station and asked the jolly […]
Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
Having well and truly digested the delights of the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay over several years, my visit to the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris was […]
Slow Photography
I was on the metro in Paris one evening when two voices broke the communal trance. An American tourist was complaining that all ten photos taken of her on the […]
The Culturist 