Simon Heffer

A long time blacklisted by the snobbish BBC, George Lloyd is the greatest English symphonist you’ve never heard of

A new wave of rarefied history is the perfect antidote to the ubiquitous TV-celeb historians

Far from being a diluted form of the orchestral work, piano transcriptions often reveal hidden depths to old favourites

A provocative new book by Jonathan Meades asks us to reassess the value of the under-appreciated metropolitan environment

While woeful arts coverage on ITV and the BBC looks beyond saving, the two Sky Arts channels offer brave, and often unpredictable, film-making

For too long the Proms showcased foreign music. Now, under Roger Wright, it is well and truly a Great British festival

The Normans embellished Saxon churches but they also built their own, and there is nowhere better to admire their artistry than Herefordshire

Public displays of emotion, sequins, ear studs and nancy boy’s clothes: where have all the men’s men gone?

Kathleen Ferrier’s wonderful career was cut short by her death at 41 in 1953. Thankfully plenty of the contralto’s songs were committed to vinyl

Learning a foreign tongue opens up an entirely new spectrum of cultural rewards, yet state schools are failing to emphasise their importance