Our cellarer's tips for September Il Papavero NV Italian wine labels can be terrifying – there’s more red tape in Italian viticulture than at the opening of a particularly large publicly financed building project. If you don’t know the [...]
‘Audubon’ favours curry Scrolling through the television channels the other day, I came across Jamie Oliver plying his trade in the usual way. He was bashing away, throwing, and tossing – when suddenly he sprinkled smoked paprika over a [...]
‘Thurifer’ recalls his time as an activist, among other things Even from the perspective of two months, the maelstrom of events following the Referendum is dizzying. The resignation of the Prime Minister, the serial resignations from the Shadow Cabinet, [...]
Tom Sutcliffe on seeing and believing Berlin’s Komische Oper, like the Bavarian State Opera, has a festival in July when one can catch up with the new work of the season. I saw two productions by Barrie Kosky, the [...]
Art Sunken Cities: Egypt’s lost worlds British Museum until 17 November The cities are Thonis-Heracleion and Canopus, and they lay at the mouth of the Nile in what is now Aboukir Bay – the place of one of [...]
Christopher Smith will not be locking the doors In October 2010, a group of gunmen – ‘Islamists’, to use the currently approved word – burst into a church in Baghdad during the Sunday evening mass, and slaughtered their priest, [...]
The July editorial was out of date the day after it went to press – victim, in good company, of a phenomenon that Private Eye dubbed “Crystalballs”. To be fair to our sources at Westminster, no one could really have [...]
From the Revd Dr Barry Orford Sir― Just what is going on in the Church of England? In the June issue of New Directions Fr Gary Waddington recalled a member of an evangelical church asking why their curate [...]
Esther’s Banquet, by John Mason Neale And the king said unto Esther on the second day at the banquet of wine, What is thy petition, Queen Esther? and it shall be granted thee; and what is thy request? and [...]
Peace in a Changing World John Newton, 1725-1807 Constant change affects our bearings, and we need to know that everything is going to be alright in the end. Nothing remains unquestioned – not even our faith – and the [...]