Little Edale punches above its weight in the worlds of music and books
Singing, writing and all those walkers marching off up Grindsbrook Clough. Maybe the hamlet will produce a ballet next. Or a mural. Or an epic filmSmall but beautiful Edale in the Peak District is making its cultural mark, with successes in the worlds ...
Cannes 2012: Confession of a Child of the Century – review
Pete Doherty's performance as a philosophising dandy is as catastrophic as the rest of this insufferable filmThere is a long and noble British tradition of musicians becoming absolutely godawful actors. Gary Kemp gave it his best shot; Sting outdid him...
A week in radio: Whatever Happened to Bobbie Gentry?
This absorbing documentary explored the riddle of Billy Joe, and the mystery of the singer herselfWhatever Happened to Bobbie Gentry? (Radio 2, Monday) began with an enigma and ended with one too. Rosanne Cash, presenting, recalled hearing Ode to Billi...
Donna Summer dies of cancer at 63
Winner of five Grammy awards, disco queen had a string of hits in the 1970s, including Love to Love You BabyDonna Summer, a singular vocal stylist whose string of disco hits spawned five Grammy awards and a following that has long outlived the genre, h...
Frank by James Kaplan – review
By Victoria SegalPrefaced by a quotation from Francis Bacon ("There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion"), Kaplan's account of Frank Sinatra's well-documented first four decades is an attempt to bring the singer to l...
Falstaff: Robert Carsen on Verdi’s English-Italian job
The opera director talks about the challenges of bringing Verdi's action-packed social comedy to London's Covent Garden and Milan's La Scala• Audio: Listen to Robert Carsen discussing the staging of Falstaff"In a way, Falstaff is the most English of ...
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...
George Benjamin: a life in music
'For a huge number of people, contemporary classical music is just closed. It's a very peripheral activity in our society, I fear'When I first met George Benjamin in 1986, he was a recovering child prodigy. He was a very boyish 26, open-faced and wide-...
Maurice Sendak obituary
Children's author and illustrator best known for Where the Wild Things AreMaurice Sendak, who has died aged 83, was both one of the most individual and one of the most successful illustrators of the 20th century. Since 1951 his 90-odd titles have sol...
The Beatles on the road, 1964-1966 – in pictures
Photographer Harry Benson was granted access to the Beatles' inner sanctum in the mid-60s. Take a look at his intimate portraits of a band on the cusp of world domination
Woody Guthrie comes to Salford
The Working Class Movement Library draws on the American folk legend to help bridge a gap in its budgetFolk legend Woody Guthrie, an American academic working in Preston, an avant garde art centre, the Working Class Movement Library in Salford… ...a...
My 1960s wasn’t all sex, drugs and rock’n'roll – and I suspect I’m not alone | Ian Jack