Cold War returns

Ben du Preez in New Statesman

So much for détente. The Cold War (Arts, circa.2007) is back on, complete with all those wonderfully droll references to sub-zero temperatures. Just when the Royal Academy appeared to have gained permission for the From Russia exhibition, British ambassador Tony Brenton was summoned to explain to the foreign ministry why [...]

Why John Milton sides with the angels

In Telegraph, Diane Purkiss reviews John Milton: Poet, Pamphleteer and Patriot by Anna Beer
Everyone knows that Paradise Lost exists, but it isn’t often read for pleasure nowadays. Yet it’s not a difficult poem; it’s easier than most of Shakespeare. Its sonorous organ tones and phalanxes of angels are the brilliant backdrop to intense moral debates [...]