The power of writing on the wall lies in its immediacy, its individuality and its specificity. To come across ‘ROUNDHEADE 1645’ carved on the side of a marble tomb in a Norfolk church is to witness the past in just one word and a single date.

spectator.co.uk/article/scrawl…

Why has the National engaged in this tedious act of defamation of the Brontës?

spectator.co.uk/article/why-ha…

Bumptious, uncouth and the despair of his schoolmasters, Linnaeus died almost forgotten

spectator.co.uk/article/what-w…

The unwritten rule that the best rock music comes from the street can create a challenge for post-punk musicians writing their memoirs. Downplaying the state of the house you lived in is one approach

spectator.co.uk/article/pop-mu…

Boyd Tonkin has already found the perfect summer holiday novel

spectator.co.uk/article/medite…

On America’s future politicians and the limits of girl power – my review of Girls State for the The Spectator

spectator.co.uk/article/compel…

Even though he was on the run for murdering a pimp, Caravaggio managed to squeeze in one final cinematic masterpiece

spectator.co.uk/article/the-tu…

Reviews of Carmen at Royal Opera House, period instrument Sibelius OAE and Bluebeard English National Opera.

spectator.co.uk/article/what-w…

Frances Wilson assures us there’s nothing funny about thinking you’re made of glass

spectator.co.uk/article/theres…

'I felt an exchange of currents, a renewed awareness of the short distance we travel between euphoria and sorrow when we start mixing music and memory.' Reviewed Underworld Spectator Culture, with a side order of This is Memorial Device Traverse Theatre
spectator.co.uk/article/the-ma…

Ripley is another mass-produced Netflix binge-watch product about a sociopathic liar, but it’s dressed up in enough monochrome miserabilism that it passes, on first glance, for a work of art

spectator.co.uk/article/grey-g…

As a music-and-dance spectacular, the Michael Jackson musical is as exhilarating as any Jackson produced while he was alive

spectator.co.uk/article/exhila…

Robinson and Clegg suggest that Liberty-era Formula 1 has edged towards becoming a ‘post-sport sport’. Its new supporters will binge-watch Drive to Survive and follow a paddock of drivers on Instagram but might never watch a Grand Prix

spectator.co.uk/article/the-se…

Carmen and Frankenstein are without a doubt two of the most over-worked tropes in our culture, being lazily recycled and plundered and vulgarised in various forms to the point at which their authentic primal power has been altogether deflated

spectator.co.uk/article/choreo…

Rose George encourages us to learn to love rats

spectator.co.uk/article/the-ra…

Impressionism is 150 years old – this is the anniversary show to see

spectator.co.uk/article/impres…

You have to love a book about the end of the world in which the first two references are to Saul Bellow’s Herzog and the HBO series The White Lotus, a high/low combo that preps us for authorial omniscience

spectator.co.uk/article/in-the…

Leiter's black-and-white prints often recall Atget, and like Atget he was drawn to window displays, shadows, mannequins, reflections – and deserted streets. This is his individual vision. In a sense it says nothing, with care, and is intensely involving

spectator.co.uk/article/the-qu…

This piece by Richard Bratby is well worth a read. That MidWalesOpera’s funding has been stopped for the reason stated below simply defies belief.

Shame on Cyngor Celfyddydau Cymru | Arts Council of Wales & Welsh Government. You are as culpable as Westminster for decimating #Opera in #Wales . Welsh National Opera

Wise, passionate and soul-stirringly withering: remembering the great Michael Tanner (1935-2024), The @Spectator's opera critic from 1996 to 2014

spectator.co.uk/article/wise-p…