Deborah Kerr as Laura Reynolds, with Edward Andrews as Herb Lee, in Tea & Sympathy. 1956

  • An Actress To Remember 27 Aug 10

    Recently I watched Black Narcissus, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s 1946 Technicolour classic, in which a group of nuns set up a school and hospital in a disused palace-cum-bordello in the... Read More

  • Booker's Dozen 6 Aug 10

    You’ve got to be pretty dedicated – or a member of the judging panel (and at least they can legitimately call it work…) – to wade through all 4998 pages of the longlist, and a bit of a gambler... Read More

  • Walking Into History 6 Aug 10

    …so proclaimed Rudyard Kipling’s poem of 1911, but one thing that neither the reeds – nor anyone else for that matter – can tell you is exactly where it was, on these lush, well-watered... Read More

  • High As A Kite... 23 Jul 10

    It may be fanciful but kite flying always seems such a simple method of really getting in touch with nature – a way to feel the energy of the wind, and of the planet, and to respond to it... Read More

  • Studies In Light 23 Jul 10

    In the middle of the 19th century, the question of whether the infant medium of photography merited consideration as a fine art was a matter of hot debate. Roger Fenton, one of the greatest English... Read More

  • Knights Of The Air 9 Jul 10

    Under the dimmed lights of the RAF Museum’s Battle of Britain exhibition hall, Spitfires and Hurricanes, and Stukas and Messerschmitts, face each other across the aisles, just as they did in the... Read More

  • The Queen Of The Caribees 11 Jun 10

    We took off in a tiny 12-seat Winair plane, packed to the rafters with jolly locals. In high spirits, there was a lot of chatting and giggling, mostly because the tanned, blond pilot has nonchalantly... Read More

  • Canons & Du Cros In The Spotlight 28 May 10

    Sir Arthur Philip Du Cros (1871-1955), the third of seven sons brought up in modest circumstances in Ireland, became a quintessential Edwardian English gentleman with an eclectic selection of... Read More

  • Mapping the Past 14 May 10

    Taller than the average man, it takes six people to lift it. Bound in leather and fastened by giant metal clasps, it contains 37 maps, each one 2m wide, intended to give an encyclopedic summary of... Read More

  • Grace And Favour 30 Apr 10

    Alfred Hitchcock would have hotly disagreed, but Grace Kelly was a prime example of how, in cinema, style can so often count for more than substance. Here was a limited actress, beautiful enough... Read More

Find Your Local...