Harold Pinter’s Nobel lecture
Pinter at his most savage, eloquent and quirky in receiving his Nobel prize [More >>>]
Category: Arts & Entertainment
Current affairs in the media: US versus UK
In a comparison between American and British print and television programmes about current affairs, the Americans come out on top every time, despite the received wisdom. [More >>>]
Life at the Daily Telegraph
Confessions of a Daily Telegraph Literary Editor: David Cameron, take note. (More >>>)
‘Crash’: another thought-provoking film from Hollywood
Haggis’s ‘Crash’ is a fascinating and complex movie on a serious subject, flawed but well worth seeing. [More >>>> ]
Land of Hope and Glory: do you blush?
The British middle classes either squirm or sing along with Land of Hope and Glory on the last night of the Proms. Which of them…. [more >>>]
How to Épater les bourgeois, of course
A Guardian columnist’s ill-judged strictures on a pop lyric, and an even worse-judged ‘of course’.
Wimbledon again
Wimbledon fortnight is here again and all the Brits are out before the first weekend.
Telling a man by his books
In response to popular demand, expressed variously in other people’s blogs as a ‘meme’ or a ‘tig’ (neither of which terms I understand), I join other contributors in answering four challenging questions – challenging,...
Who Believes in Vera Drake? (with postscript of 11 Feb 05)
Is the abortionist with a heart of gold too good to be true, and the situation depicted by Mike Leigh too black-and-white, or is that an unduly cynical view?
Jerry Springer and the Christian fundamentalists
How the UK’s home-grown Christian Right tried to stop us seeing an important and serious musical-cum-opera on television