The enduring legacy of Andrea Verrocchio

A Florence exhibition celebrates one of the most influential artists you’ve never heard of

The lasting worth of ‘worthless’ books

Nothing written is utterly without value, as I proved to myself by reading two random works

Why being normal is the new normal

Self-help advice might seem painfully obvious, but those who struggle with “normality” need it

The art of survival in Nazi Germany

Artists in the Third Reich swiftly learnt to adapt to Hitler’s traditionalist cultural diktats

Jolly Bad Taste vs. feeble Good Taste

Sir Les Patterson or Poundbury, Roy Wood or Richard Rogers, dodgy clubs or lusty yeomen?

The girlhood of Philip Larkin

The key to the poet’s early obsession with girls’-school stories may lie with his sister Kitty

How the Ancients can help the Moderns


Viennese rooms with a point of view

The salons of Vienna were key spaces for promoting the emancipation of women and Jews

Lionel Trilling: America’s Matthew Arnold

The great critic’s letters reveal his struggles with anti-Semitism and disillusion with Marxism

Debt and damnation: Islam in Dante

Edward Said accused the poet of Orientalist prejudice — but he owed much to Muslim tradition

Underrated: Abroad

The ravenous longing for the infinite possibilities of “otherwhere”

The king of cakes
