A few years after the death of Pablo Picasso, a New York band called Modern Lovers wrote a sarcastic song about how some people tried to pick up…

When news first came in that Martin Amis, the celebrated British novelist, had died at the age of 73, I braced myself for a torrent of obituaries and…

Sometimes a retrospective exhibition shows us hidden aspects of an artist. We learn that while they were doing the things they’re famous for, they…

When Dr Johnson said the thought of imminent death ‘concentrates the mind wonderfully’ he was addressing the issue of public executions. Lately, we…

The coronation, with its ancient ceremony, bunting galore and its very own quiche, is finally upon us. Today, the British nation will unite in joyous…

I was so disappointed recently by a Cezanne exhibition (at Tate Modern), that I wrote about the frames rather than the paintings. How, then, to…

Britain is possibly the most confused nation in the world. It is certainly one of the oldest, and mental confusion frequently comes with advanced age…

We tend to forget that one of cinema’s abiding action men took his name from a birdwatcher. Yet Ian Fleming, himself an avid enthusiast of all things…

There is a lot to be said for soft power.Sitting under Sir Norman Foster’s glass done in the Reichstag building in Berlin where members of Germany’s …

As a child, I was taught never to mock the afflicted. It’s a good question where or when that rule began, because the afflicted were fair game in…