Arts Council
Father and son: the Herbert Read I knew
A filial memoir of Britain’s apostle of modernism in art
The Sound of Swindon
For two decades Harry Stanley Fairclough turned the Wiltshire town into a leading centre of opera
Poetic Injustice
The Arts Council is no longer subsidising poetry publishers but giving direct grants to poets instead. The result: the death of the enriching working relationship between editor and poet
Hall of the House to Auntie’s Rescue
The Royal Opera House’s chief executive is returning to the BBC after a dozen successful years
London Needs a Real Cultural Revolution
Boris Johnson should spend his second mayoral term reversing Ken Livingstone’s legacy of inverse snobbery and interest group politics
Just Say No to State Funding
Subsidy cuts give classical music the chance to thrive without government interference
Pain in the Arts
Failing arts organisations backed by taxpayers’ money do not deserve an unlimited supply of hand-outs
The New South Sea Bubble
Auction houses are reporting records being broken—even though the works on sale are quite mundane
DIY Stravinsky
The future of art isn’t determined by raw cash, as some lamenting the Coalition’s Arts cuts dramatically make out
Wanted: A Keynesian Vision for the Arts
The Arts Council started with a tiny budget and a mandate to lift the postwar gloom. Now this meddlesome quango has lost its way and its chair, Liz Forgan, must go
Why Remoaners should back Boris
“Boris, ironically, now offers Remoaners the best chance of a soft Brexit, or at least a sensible one. And to those who want a second referendum—’the people’s vote’—there may even be a chance of that too.”
On the road
“In the summer of 1980, in the grip of some Kerouac-ish fantasy, I opted to hitch-hike from Laredo to New York”
Discovering the Great War of China
A third of a million Chinese labourers helped the Allies defeat the Kaiser, but their huge unsung contribution ended in betrayal