Mr Dickens and some of his women

Miriam Margolyes has long been one of my favourite actors, and in this, the year of Dickens’ bicentennial, I’ve been delighted to read a book called Dickens’ Women co-written by Margolyes and Sonia Fraser, and published by the Hesperus Press.

Dickens’ Women is the script of a one-woman show, which draws upon many of Dickens’s texts to create a vivid picture of his attitude to women in general, with details of those who shared his life, many of whom went on to inspire the female characters in his work.

Margolyes — who, by her own account, would probably not be to Dickens’ taste, being a mature woman with a mind of her own — points out that Dickens’ idea of the

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Defending Hockney

Regarding his latest exhibition at the Royal Academy, poor David Hockney has been described as ‘overrated’, ‘overindulged’ and with a ‘predilection for the limelight’ (Andrew Lambirth, The Spectator ) and his work called ‘repetitive’, ‘shallow’ and ‘discordant’ (Brian Sewell, Evening Standard).

Hockney’s work is, as everyone must know by now, currently overtaking the entire ground floor of the Royal Academy. A Bigger Picture does just want it says on the tin – landscapes of Yorkshire are spread over 32 canvases and 51 blown-up prints from an iPad, and sprawled over 18 digital camera projections.

The work is gigantic, crude, sloppy and repetitive. It plays on, or utilises, pointillism, Van Gogh’s circular strokes and surrealist humour. For all of the

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Spotify Sunday: A tenor’s top ten

I’m a recent and evangelical convert to Spotify, especially since I worked out how to save playlists on my phone so I can keep listening on planes.  It’s probably not how you’re supposed to learn music, but I find it useful to listen to many different versions the operas and concert pieces I have to learn by different orchestras and singers, and pick my favourite bits to steal.

Britten’s Les Illuminations Op.18 – Bostridge / Rattle / Berlin Philharmonic

I went to sing these fantastic songs in Basel last month. I listened to this recording about a hundred times – and heard new things each time.  It’s brilliantly recorded, managing to capture the huge range of colours and nuance that Britten writes without

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Will the revolution be analogue?

In opposition, David Cameron memorably chided Gordon Brown as  ‘…an analogue politician in a digital age,’ adding: ‘You are the past’. All true in a political sense, but perhaps Cameron was wrong (or not quite right) about the direction of the digital age. Many in the arts are now arguing that the future is analogue.

Recently the author Jonathan Franzen passionately defended the permanence of the analogue book against the instant gratification of the e-book. As he put it:

‘Someone worked really hard to make the language just right, just the way they wanted it. They were so sure of it that they printed it in ink, on paper. A screen always feels like we could delete that, change that, move it around. So for a literature-crazed person like me, it’s just not permanent enough.’

I believe Franzen

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50 years of The Sunday Times Magazine

The Sunday Times Magazine became the Britain’s first colour newspaper supplement on its launch in February 1962.

Over the past fifty years, it has featured stunning images by some of the world’s finest photographers, including Don McCullin, David Bailey, Eve Arnold, Richard Avedon, Sam Taylor-Wood, Terry-O’Neill, Chris Floyd and Stuart Franklin.

The magazine is celebrating its 50th birthday with a special exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea.

As well as a string of sumptuously presented images are works from the magazine by renowned writers such as Ian Fleming, Martin Amis, Bruce Chatwin, Jilly Cooper, Zoe Heller, James Fox and Nicholas Tomalin.

Bright, white and dreamlike, each backlit photograph has a story to tell.  They move you to chuckle, frown, bewail and buckle. Some you’ll know well, others you won’t.  It is a splendid show. Here are

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Filmclub Reviews

The chance to publish reviews by the young members of FILMCLUB is always a pleasure. This month, our young film critics review an exceptionally good documentary, a gripping monster movie and one of the best films of the 1970s.

March of the Penguins

Film review by Georgia, age 11, from Combe Down CofE Primary School

This film is an amazing documentary about the emperor penguin learning to overcome the fatal situation it faces every day of its life. The tone in the narrator’s voice was very expressive, and he told the story in an empathetic way.

Even though this story is very simple it made me think about the teamwork and co-operation that the male and female share to

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A slap-up festival

The secret of comedy? It’s all in the timelessness.

That was the lesson of this weekend’s Slapstick Festival  in Bristol, at least. The event is a cross-generational humour love-in where comics and fans of all ages celebrate visual comedy from the earliest Chaplin shorts to Monty Python, stopping at all points in between, before or since.

There were laughs, the occasional tear, and full-throated appreciation for the deceptively simple art of slapstick. Because, while clowning around in front of a camera may be crowd-pleasing fun, to be part of an audience of hundreds hooting at a pratfall that was executed 95 years ago is an awe-inspiring experience.

There’s more to this business than the odd pie in the face.

In fact, it’s because what our Friday night host, Griff Rhys Jones, called ‘viz biz’ is

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