Something horrible has happened to that dapper and dignified theatre critic, Quentin Letts. Attending the first night of the hippie musical Hair, currently being revived at the Gielgud Theatre, he briefly and unpleasantly found himself at the centre of the...
Read moreJust one now and then, a review appears which takes a step back from the book, film or play under consideration and makes a wider, more significant point. A case in point is Walter Kirn’s recent review in the...
Read moreIt is truly bizarre that as the economy spirals ever deeper into the red, one group of highly privileged men and women become increasingly wealthy from the public purse – and no one seems to give a damn. MPs may...
Read moreThe celebrity recluse Charles Saatchi occupies a peculiar position in our culture. Once he was a retiring, powerful man who avoided any kind of exposure to the public eye. Then, when his gallery reached its 20th anniversary, it was announced...
Read moreTo get a sense of the real news, of stories which have not been efficiently shaped and varnished for public consumption by the metropolitan media, it is often a good idea to read local papers. There, the apparently small events...
Read moreThere are moments in one's life when a powerful curiosity about family origins begins to niggle. An urge to talk to older relations about interestingly eccentric great aunts is one symptom of this malaise; researching one's family tree on the...
Read moreThe local council has produced a largely, brightly-coloured sticker reading 'SLOW DOWN IN OUR VILLAGE' for all residents to stick on their wheelie-bins. Almost all of them have, so that once week anyone driving in the area will have this...
Read moreAlmost certainly, the good burghers of Dudley in the West Midlands will have used the word "inappropriate" when discussing whether they should allow Philip Ridley's play Moonfleece to be performed at the town's theatre. When they banned it, the reasoning...
Read moreThe heartbreaking spectacle of civil servants stumbling around in the darkness with their trousers around their ankles has been evoked by a news story from Birmingham. Aiming to save energy – and presumably to cut down on lazy staff taking...
Read moreThese days, I awake thinking of the strangest things: sheikhs, fat women, primitive men, sad old bastards with guitars. In less than two weeks’ time, on Sunday 18th April, I return to the King’s Head Theatre, Islington, in the company...
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