The more beautiful things in life

Mumford and Sons second album Babel is a little less Shakespeare and a little more biblical. Exactly what you’d anticipate perhaps, Sign No More the title of the debut album and the first song from it, is taken from the great William Shakespeare’s comic tragedy Much ado about nothing and the strong vain of Shakespearean language and direct quotation proliferates their debut album. To the extent that I successfully convinced myself that listening to Sigh No More whilst revising for my El...

By Harriet Cash

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The news of the vandalism of a Mark Rothko painting in the Tate Modern seems to have been met mostly with frothing outrage and indignation – and rightly so, you might well argue. Down the ages, works of art have fallen victim to sabotage and defacement for more or less artistic reasons; from Two Naked Men Jump Into Tracey’s Bed (a performance piece in its own right), to pissing in Duchamp’s Fountain, via the firing of a shotgun at a Da Vinci painting, ...

When I first heard that Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy’s masterpiece, was being made into a film starring Keira Knightley and Jude Law, I admit I was sceptical, however, when I heard that Tom Stoppard was writing the screen play, I became oh so very interested.

Those of you familiar with Russian literature of this period will know all too well the Russian realist authors love of minutely detailed description of events and deep inner contemplations by their protagonists, which is why Russian ...

The fin-de-siècle period was one in which Dandyism could flourish. Jules Barbey D’Aurevilly, a writer who was influential on Decadent artists, and one of the early Dandy figures regarded ‘Dandyism as a complete theory of life which springs from the unending struggle betw...

Cambridge is the city of bicycles, history and academia and during the summer it really comes into its own. For six weeks during the summer the revered colleges of Cambridge University open up their immaculate gardens and play host to some of the Bard’s greatest works, celebrating history, comedy, and tragedy, Cambridge Shakespeare Festival is an idiosyncrasy of the city which for me is the highlight of the summer.

For the full tourist experience or just sheer enjoyment of all that is ...

Wayne and Gerardine Hemingway brought their award-winning Vintage festival to the Southbank Centre Royal Festival Hall on the 29 – 31 July 2011 as part of the Festival of Britain’s 60th anniversary. Celebrating seven decades of British cool: the music, dance, fashion, food, art, design, and film from the 1920s to the 1980s. The event includes catwalk performances, DJ sets, dance lessons, vintage retailers, hair and beauty makeovers and arts and crafts experiences.

Arriving at the Royal F...