Category Archives: Arts & Literature

Previews: Country Life Magazine – August 7, 2024

Country Life Magazine (August 7, 2024): The latest issue features ‘Huts for Heroes’ – Where adventures start…

A consolation and pleasure

Could Queen Victoria’s consort, Prince Albert, be considered an architect? He thought so — and Michael Hall tends to agree

The legacy

Carla Passino salutes the modest Henry Tate, whose name will live forever in the art world

The secret history of flowers

Healing, revealing, defence against thieving, our wildflowers’ names tell the story of our ancestors. John Lewis-Stempel reads the leaves

Up where the air is clear

An Antarctic explorer’s base or a Scottish fisherman’s shelter, the humble hut is a crucial element in stirring tales. Robin Ashcroft opens the doors

You rang, your majesty?

Even the most distasteful jobs could offer compensations to savvy servants in the Royal Household, finds Susan Jenkins

Going Dutch

The great Netherlandish masters have no equal in admirers and influence, believes Michael Hall

Harriet Hastings’s favourite painting

The biscuiteer picks a haunting scene in a lonely hotel room

Against the Grain

Carla Carlisle pays tribute to the memory of a farmer, honest broadcaster and dear friend

Bottoms up

What do the white behinds of rabbits, deer and foxes really say? Laura Parker deciphers scuts, rumps and rears

Summer’s last stand

Securing the harvest is the weather watcher’s concern in August, says Lia Leendertz

The good stuff

Hetty Lintell wraps up in style ready to hit the beach

Interiors

A party-ready sitting room and stylish touches for a home office

London Life

  • Rooftop cocktails
  • Wiggy Hindmarch, wine cellars and rosebay willowherb
  • William Hosie’s capital characters
  • Richard MacKichan on the British Museum Reading Room’s return

Presiding spirits

The fourth generation to nurture the garden of Glin Castle, Co Limerick, Ireland, is doing her predecessors proud. Caroline Donald explores a windswept haven beside the Shannon

Kitchen garden cook

Melanie Johnson conjures up treats with courgette flowers

It’s not what you’ve got, it’s what you do with it

Even the tiniest town garden can offer views and wildlife to rival open countryside, believes city dweller Jonathan Notley

Travel

Pamela Goodman gives in to whimsy in Wales

Harry Hastings delights in the Art Deco Hotel Casa Lucía in Argentina

Rosie Paterson rounds up the best new openings in Greece

Arts/Books: Times Literary Supplement – Aug 9, 2024

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Times Literary Supplement (August 7, 2024): The latest issue features ‘Paper Dreams’ – Dinah Birch on William Morris’s contradictions; Cancelled left and right; Downfall of the West; Sly old Chaucer; Beowulf, hero of the Northern World….

Preview: The New Yorker Magazine – August 12, 2024

A worker stands in an icecream store with unusual flavors.

The New Yorker (August 5, 2024): The latest issue features Roz Chast’s “Flavor of the Week” – The artist’s enticing (and not so enticing) tweaks to one of summer’s enduring pleasures.

The Supreme Court Needs Fixing, But How?

President Biden has proposed radical changes to the Court. Reviewing them is a reminder of why reform is so hard, despite dissatisfaction and a wealth of ideas.

By Amy Davidson Sorkin

Kamala Harris and the Understudy Effect

Kamala Harris and the Understudy Effect

Julie Benko, who hit it big after going on in place of Beanie Feldstein in “Funny Girl,” has a lot of advice for the Vice-President, now that she’s done with waiting in the wings.

By Zach Helfand

What Does Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Actually Want?

The third-party Presidential candidate has a troubled past, a shambolic campaign, and some surprisingly good poll numbers.

By Clare Malone

Books: Literary Review Magazine – August 2024

Literary Review – August 3, 2024: The latest issue features ‘Rise and Fall of the Cromwells’; Thom Gunn’s demons; Prams and paintbrushes; Children of Atatürk; Friedrich in nature…

Killer with a Cause – Oliver Cromwell: Commander in Chief By Ronald Hutton

John Adamson 

Parliaments Not Taken – The Fall: The Last Days of the English Republic By Henry Reece

Edward Vallance 

Crash & Earn – Default: The Landmark Court Battle over Argentina’s $100 Billion Debt Restructuring By Gregory MakoffLR

Sebastian Edwards 

Preview: The New Yorker Magazine – August 5, 2024

A person and a small child are together on a beach.

The New Yorker (July 30, 2024): The latest issue features Gayle Kabaker’s “Beach Walk” – The artist captures a sweet moment shared by her daughter and granddaughter.

Kamala Harris Isn’t Going Back

Kamala Harris Isn’t Going Back

Fifty years after Shirley Chisholm ran for the Presidency, we find ourselves yet again questioning the durability of outmoded presumptions about race and gender. By Jelani Cobb

The Republican National Convention and the Iconography of Triumph

In Milwaukee, with a candidate who had just cheated death, the resentment rhetoric of Trump’s 2016 campaign gave way to an atmosphere of festive certainty. By Anthony Lane

Gillian Anderson’s Sex Education

She became famous playing buttoned-up Agent Scully. But in midlife her characters often have a strong erotic charge—and now she’s edited “Want,” a book of sexual fantasies. By Rebecca Mead

Historical Views: How The Seine River Made “Paris”

CBS Mornings (July 27, 2024) – The Seine River is an integral part of Paris — and of the 2024 Olympics. Athletes in some swimming events will compete in the river, despite questions about if the river would be safe to race in. Jeff Glor has more.

London Review Of Books – August 1, 2024 Preview

London Review of Books (LRB) – July 25 , 2024: The latest issue features ‘NATO’s Delusions’; On Gaslighting and Versions of Wittgenstein….

Spanish Fashion in the Age of Velázquez: A Tailor at the Court of Philip IV by Amanda Wunder – Nicola Jennings

The New Roman Empire: A History of Byzantium by Anthony Kaldellis – Michael Kulikowski

Nato: From Cold War to Ukraine, a History of the World’s Most Powerful Alliance by Sten Rynning

Deterring : A Biography of Nato by Peter AppsNatopolitanism: The Atlantic Alliance since the Cold War edited by Grey Anderson

Everything Is Possible: Anti-fascism and the Left in the Age of Fascism by Joseph Fronczak

On Gaslighting by Kate Abramson

Arts/Books: Times Literary Supplement – July 26, 2024

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Times Literary Supplement (July 24, 2024): The latest issue features ‘Generation Anxious’ – Jonathan Haidt’s bleak vision of modern childhood; Rebuilding broken Britain; The woman who stalked the world; German Expressionism at Tate Modern and Twisters..

Previews: Country Life Magazine – July 24, 2024

Country Life Magazine (July 23, 2024): The latest issue features ‘Talking Dogs’ – The secret language of the shepherd’s friends, Shooting on Lewis and fishing on the Test; Fired up – the foundry that made Trafalgar’s lions; Loving lapwings; Building with oak and summer in Paris….

Whistle while you work

It is mesmerising to watch one man and his dog moving a flock of sheep using a language all of their own. Katy Birchall admires the almost telepathic connection between sheepdog and handler

Who are you calling a peewit?

The pied plumage of the lapwing was once a common sight in our countryside and, as Vicky Liddell learns, moves are afoot to halt the beautiful bird’s decline

Heavy metal

The heat is on for Catriona Gray as she visits the UK’s oldest-surviving art foundry, now forging a successful future hidden away in the Hampshire countryside

The dogs that ask why

Patrick Galbraith is confounded by a case of mistaken canine identity when he embarks on a day of walked-up grouse shooting on the Isle of Lewis

The tale of the Croque Monsieur

Armed with an array of home-tied flies, David Profumo relishes pitting his wits against the wily trout of the South of England’s crystal-clear chalkstreams

From little acorns

We have been building with strong, sustainable and flexible oak since time immemorial — and the art continues to thrive, as Arabella Youens discovers

To Paris with love

The 1924 Olympics were the crowning glory of a golden age for culture in the French capital. Mary Miers looks back to an extraordinary, liberating time

Willie Hartley Russell’s favourite painting

The chairman of the Almshouse Association chooses a striking portrait of a remarkable man

Fitting like a glove

Jeremy Musson applauds the success of Woodford Hill Farm, a new country house perfect for its old Northamptonshire setting

The legacy

He is seldom given due credit, but there would be no modern Olympic Games without William Penny Brookes, finds Kate Green

As different as night and day

John Lewis-Stempel’s detour in Dorset is rewarded by an early-morning encounter with the enigmatic, elusive nightjar

The good stuff

Hetty Lintell is getting shirty with the best summer gents’ linens     

West is best

Eleanor Doughty explores the top places for London commuters to buy out west of the capital

The odd couple

Caroline Donald hails the marriage of a 200-year-old villa with a contemporary garden in Kent

Kitchen garden cook

Melanie Johnson on cherries

Bay watch

The bay leaf wins the laurels as a symbol of strength, courage and wisdom, says Ian Morton

Our daily bread

Neil Buttery examines the rise of the Anglo-Saxon Lammas loaf

Preview: The New Yorker Magazine – July 29, 2024

A man and a boy ride on a bicycle raising a French flag and an Olympic torch.

The New Yorker (July 22, 2024): The latest issue features Paul Rogers’s “Monsieur Hulot’s Olympics” – A French twist on the opening ceremony’s torch relay….

Where Do Republicans and Democrats Stand After the R.N.C.?

Biden imperilled his candidacy at the debate because of his inability to speak coherently. At the convention, Trump was doing something similar, and couldn’t stop. By Benjamin Wallace-Wells

Will Hezbollah and Israel Go to War?

Months of fighting at the border threaten to ignite an all-out conflict that could devastate the region.

Should We Abolish Prisons?

Our carceral system is characterized by frequent brutality and ingrained indifference. Finding a better way requires that we freely imagine alternatives. By Adam Gopnik