Cannes film festival set to honour the bookworm
Coveted Palme d'Or likely to go to a screen adaptation, with many of this year's entrants borrowing from literatureThe Cannes festival is, famously, the keeper of the flame of the auteur tradition. The ritual of honouring the overarching vision of a si...
The week that Maurice Sendak died and Jaggergate broke
It was the week that Maurice Sendak died and Bianca Jagger had a fight at the opera. Here are the past seven days' biggest arts stories from around the webEach Thursday, I round up the biggest arts news of the week, recommend some longer reads and have...
Culture coach: The week’s essential arts stories
Every week I'll round up the biggest arts stories from around the web, recommend a long read and look ahead at what's coming upEach Thursday, I am going to round up the main arts stories of the week. Here's the first instalment.• It was Turner prize ...
Caractacus: Britain’s Osama bin Laden?
Iron Age Britain's most celebrated resistance leader to Roman rule was Caractacus, who evaded capture for nine years by melting away into the Welsh mountainsThe second of May marks the first anniversary of the death of Osama bin Laden. I've been away f...
John Richardson: a life in art
'I was able to grow up and be what I wanted to be – a writer about art with a career at the centre of the art world'"How well do you know Kipling's poetry?" demands John Richardson, almost before the door to his Manhattan apartment has closed behin...
Dan Jarvis: a very unlikely arts minister
He has served with the Special Forces in Afghanistan. But is Dan Jarvis facing his toughest challenge yet – as shadow arts minister?Britain has had some unlikely arts (and shadow arts) ministers over the years. But none so far-fetched, perhaps, as Da...
This week’s arts diary
Could there be a 'German bailout' for the RSC? The award refusal that was refused, and will Glasgow get a Turner?Ostermeier's HamletThomas Ostermeier's widely acclaimed production of Hamlet, which the director brought to London last week from his home ...
This week’s arts diary
From stormclouds over Scottish literature to storming out of a concertA question of identity Back in August, I interviewed Scottish writer and critic Stuart Kelly about Scottish literature for a podcast from the Edinburgh international book festival. I...
Southbank’s Olympic event to showcase art, poems and pop-up proms
Tracey Emin and Thomas Hirschhorn among top artists to harness the spirit of the Games for a giant public festival in 2012The Hayward Gallery in London is to be turned into a giant art school next summer, with classes for the public held by artists inc...
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, and more – review
Three treatments of the Greek war epic reviewed, including a translation by Stephen Mitchell and an Alice Oswald reworkingIn fleshing out the early history of the Homeric heroes Achilles and Patroclus, Madeline Miller is following a tradition almost as...
You Talkin’ to Me? by Sam Leith – review
A history of clever speaking from Aristotle to ObamaWhen we think of rhetoric, the phrases that spring most readily to mind are "rhetorical question" and "empty rhetoric" – formulations suggestive of the redundancy and the untrustworthiness of the an...
This week’s arts diary
This week Rachel Whiteread scupts for Britain, put your name down for Olympic posters, Shechter and Gormley unite and Geoff Dyer fawnsWhiteread comes homeRachel Whiteread's most famous sculpture in Britain is House – a cast of the interior of a ...
