Times Literary Supplement (May 22, 2024): The latest issue features ‘The Other Europe’ – Defining a Continent; An English Country Garden; The church of Peter Ackroyd and Zombie apocalypse…
Naturally, I too will be staying at the Bayerischer Hof. —Franz Kafka
The Hotel Bayerischer Hof in Munich is an indestructible fortress of Mitteleuropean culture where tour guides like to pause. Richard Wagner repaired to the Hof for tea after his opera performances in Munich; Sigmund Freud fell out with Carl Jung in the Hof over the status of the libido; Kafka stayed at the Hof when he gave his second, and final, public reading to a hostile audience. A decade later, Hitler learned to crack crabs at the Hof under the supervision of a society hostess, and Joseph Goebbels counted on its rooms for a good night’s rest. The Hof weathered the revolutions of 1848; it withstood the revolution of 1918–19, in which the socialist leader Kurt Eisner was assassinated in front of the hotel and Bavaria briefly became a workers’-council republic; it rebuffed the Nazis’ attempts to buy it in the Thirties; and, after it was nearly destroyed by an Allied bombing raid in 1944, it was reconstructed with beaverlike industry. Today its wide façade of three hundred and thirty-seven rooms imposes itself over the small Promenadeplatz like a slice of meringue cake too large for its plate. Every February, hundreds of diplomats, politicians, academics, and arms dealers convene here for the Munich Security Conference.
Money—where it comes from, where it goes—was on my mind as I drove from Brooklyn to Philadelphia last fall, a Friday the thirteenth. I spent most of the trip on a Zoom call with my wife and our doula, discussing what combination of night nurses, babysitters, and nannies we’d need come the birth of our twins, our second and third sons. Nary a dollar figure was uttered, seemingly out of respect, just as those attending a funeral avoid naming the actual cause of death.
Times Literary Supplement (May 17, 2024): The latest issue features ‘The future of sex?’ – Dating apps, virtual encounters and polyamory; An American Life; Ripley’s new game; Gurus and primal screams ….
This year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show is poised to celebrate the unfolding freshness and energy of deciduous woods in May, as Kathryn Bradley-Hole discovers
Beneath the boughs
Garden designer Tom Stuart-Smith is returning to Chelsea’s Main Avenue for the first time in 14 years for the National Garden Scheme, reveals Joanna Fortnam
‘When the ass begins to bray, surely rain will come that day’
It’s raining ancient folklore and proverbs as John Lewis-Stempel relies on jumping trout, croaking frogs and chirping crickets to predict the great British weather
My art is in the garden
Carla Passino examines how the brushstrokes of Monet, Turner, Klimt and Canaletto are providing colour and inspiration at Chelsea
All I need is the air that I breathe
Cathryn Spence airs the story of how—250 years ago—Joseph Priestley ‘discovered’ oxygen at Bowood House in Wiltshire
Cindy Sughrue’s favourite painting
The director of London’s Charles Dickens Museum picks a classic snapshot of the capital’s skyline
The legacy
Bess of Hardwick was the first of many influential Chatsworth women, as Kate Green learns
A timeless view
George Plumptre admires the simple beauty of the gardens at Pusey House in Oxfordshire
Seating plans
What makes a comfortable garden seat, asks Tiffany Daneff
Sitting pretty
Amelia Thorpe seeks out crafted benches to suit every garden
The cutting-garden diaries
In the final part of her series, Anna Brown is focused on harvesting
A lily among weeds
Clive Aslet lauds the enduring influence of the prolific Victorian architect George Edmund Street
Slugging it out
Marianne Taylor is captivated by the curious beauty of molluscs
Mane stay
Deborah Nash visits the last British firm creating horsehair fabric
Out and About
The Royal Countryside Fund reception at Fortnum & Mason
Interiors
Amelia Thorpe takes a look at six of the best WOW!house creations
A brush with sparkles
Hetty Lintell is wowed by jewels celebrating the National Gallery
Kitchen garden cook
The arrival of new-season carrots is applauded by Melanie Johnson
Native herbs
John Wright is playing with fire as he investigates horseradish
Sweet chamomile, good times never seemed so good
Deborah Nicholls-Lee dreams of dainty white flowers and a fragrant lawn that never needs mowing
Falstaff reimagined
Sir Ian McKellen lends a ‘silvering dignity’ to Shakespeare’s famed roisterer, finds Michael Billington
This spring, Barbara and Joe, a retired couple in their 60s, sat down with me at a bistro in suburban Connecticut to talk about their relationship. That they were sitting there together at all was something of a triumph. In the past few days, they had hurled at each other the kinds of accusations that couples make when they are on the brink of mutual destruction. They were bruised from the words that had been exchanged, and although they sat close to each other, their energy was quiet and heavy.
Financial advisors who bring qualified children on board can set up their practices for long-term success and stability. Here’s what it means for clients.
At first glance, the world economy looks reassuringly resilient. America has boomed even as its trade war with China has escalated. Germany has withstood the loss of Russian gas supplies without suffering an economic disaster. War in the Middle East has brought no oil shock. Missile-firing Houthi rebels have barely touched the global flow of goods. As a share of global gdp, trade has bounced back from the pandemic and is forecast to grow healthily this year.