Plain English

    This week was the centenary of the death of Rupert Brooke (1887-1915), as well as of the failed Gallipoli campaign of the First World War. The illustrious war poet was a bogus posthumous hero, and in life a neurotic, guilt-ridden bisexual, and social climber; but he charmed everyone with his magnetic personality and electric presence. King’s College Cambridge marked the … [Read more...]

  Nobody seems to have noticed that the most important member of the production team in a pair of new plays on the London stage is the choreographer. Cheek by Jowl’s Measure for Measure and the Almeida’s Carmen Disruption by Simon Stephens (playwright of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) are both balletic, and both require those on the stage to move in precise, … [Read more...]

The Hard Problem, Sir Tom Stoppard’s first stage play since 2006, begins with what you have to call Stoppardian promise: a bit of dialogue that misleads the audience about its actual subject. We hear a 30-something man tell a 22-year-old woman”: “You’re looking at two years. The jewellery was under the floorboards. The police have nothing to connect you to the scene of the robbery.” But this … [Read more...]

    Sir Harrrison Birtwistle in conversation with Fiona Maddocks Like everyone who knows him, I sometimes call the composer, Sir Harrison Birtwistle, “Harry.” In truth, though, my acquaintance with him is slight – we first bonded in Mere, Wiltshire over a few bottles of serious red from the Northern Rhône, poured by our mutual chum, Robin Yapp, who had been Harry’s dentist before he … [Read more...]

Though I have travelled in India often and extensively, I’ve not been since the economic liberalisation that has resulted in 71% of Indians having mobile phone subscriptions, as opposed to the 5% that had them ten years ago. This startling statistic comes from Sunil Khilnani’s programme essay for David Hare’s new National Theatre play, “Behind the Beautiful Forevers,” based on the book by … [Read more...]

Fascinating Rhythm, 1982-3. Enamel on plywood. Allen Jones’s work is evidently too difficult for some people who call themselves “feminists” to understand. In 1986 a posse of deranged women (or a single loonie)  attacked his 1969 “Chair” with paint stripper or acid (Google-accessed accounts vary); and his work was pointedly excluded from Penelope Curtis’ 2011 Tate Britain survey of “Modern … [Read more...]

An invitation to a lecture about the “cultural” part of agriculture, reminded me how rarely we think about food and culture. Joining the usually* delightful set of foodie monographs called “The Edible Series” published by Reaktion is a volume called Figs: A Global History by my friend and colleague, David C. Sutton, Director of Research Projects at Reading University. Its tone is odd and amusing – … [Read more...]

Self Portrait at the Age of 63 (1669) The National Gallery London “Rembrandt the Late Works” at the National Gallery until 18 January (and at the Rijksmuseum from 12 February - 17 May 2015) is one of the great exhibitions of our lifetime. The NG must have called in every favour it was owed to have borrowed some of the finest paintings and works on paper of Rembrandt’s last years – the selection … [Read more...]