Magazine
Masters and apprentices
Contemporary art rules the market at the 58th Venice Biennale
Virtuosos of the written word
Only a few great composers are equally gifted writers: their work can be sacred or hatefully profane
In search of Primo Levi
On writing the life of a very private man
Echt Croatian classics
Burek, cotolette and layer cake in Zagreb
Miller’s tales and Nordic gloom
Willy Loman is back in town, still pursuing the American dream, while Ibsen’s unhappy ghosts return too
The adoration of the Maestro
The Concertgebouw’s trailblazing conductor sublimated his libido in worship of Hitler and Mussolini
A penny saved
“60 per cent of coppers are used only once before being consigned to a piggy bank. Clearly, few can bear to feel their pockets weighed down with coins of such small worth”
Border bard
“Patrick Kavanagh wrote about an Ireland that “froze for want of Europe”. He was thinking of an Ireland that history had removed from the mainstream of European culture”
Snack attacks
“Greggs was supposed to be safe from the liberal metropolitan elite. The vegan sausage roll showed that it wasn’t”
What’s in a word?
“Without a way of visualising and recording our spoken words, our world would not be the same”
Why Remoaners should back Boris
“Boris, ironically, now offers Remoaners the best chance of a soft Brexit, or at least a sensible one. And to those who want a second referendum—’the people’s vote’—there may even be a chance of that too.”
On the road
“In the summer of 1980, in the grip of some Kerouac-ish fantasy, I opted to hitch-hike from Laredo to New York”
Discovering the Great War of China
A third of a million Chinese labourers helped the Allies defeat the Kaiser, but their huge unsung contribution ended in betrayal