The blood and guts of Coward- NOEL Coward was just an ambitious – and talented – nobody when he dumped two of his plays on the desk of Norman ...>more

Group that painted the town - WALTER Sickert, of course, suggested the name for the Camden Town Group of 16 painters who changed modern art in Britain ...>more

Children find Russian Revolution - A dozen primary schoolchildren sat on the floor of the Royal Academy. “You help to keep the place clean,” joked their mentor...>more

Looking back to the Futurists’ legacy- AT last mythology and the mystic cult of the ideal have been left behind. We are going to be present at the birth of...>more

Silver celebration for the Torriano - THE Torriano Meeting House, which rather splendidly bills itself as “one of London’s best- kept anachronisms” is...>more

Dame Beryl's gymslip secret - THE time Beryl Bainbridge’s ex-mother-in-law tried to shoot her, her childhood amid warring parents and her expulsion from school ...>more

Bob, the star of folk music (and his old pal, Mr Dylan) - WHEN one of the world’s best song-writers tells interviewers you are a “massive influence” on him...>more

Get on your bike with a rental scheme the OY boys are pedalling - LONDONERS are used to being told to ditch the car and switch to two wheels: it’s part of the ...>more

An indie kid's guide to the capital - IT'S not any old historical map. On closer inspection the scrawl becomes legible and Royal Academy of Arts fellow Stephen ...>more

Finding a blessing in the brick that fell in their heads - WHEN it was announced last year that the London Magazine – a bastion of literary society that has enjoyed...>more

A tale to revive the passion in democracy - SIR Richard Atten - borough liked the book so much that as soon as he finished it, he contacted the author and bought...>more

Wind-up job for an uphill task - THE Camden Railway Heritage Trust, which has just celebrated its first anniversary, has set up a Railway Heritage Trail around...>more

Warming to the role of ice explorer - HE may be an Irishman himself, from County Galway, but Aidan Dooley had never heard of Tom Crean, from nearby ..>more

New turn for the ‘late’ Iron Lady - WHEN they finally put you in the ground I’ll stand on your grave and tramp the dirt down,” Elvis Costello once sang of ...>more

‘Normal service resumed’ at The London Magazine - AFTER a difficult few weeks with Arts Council England cutting off its grant, that unique publication The ...>more

Art that looks on the brighter side of life - AS he patrolled the streets of South Armagh during the dangerous days of the IRA insurrection, army officer Toby Ward ...>more

Writer behind nightmares is reawakened - ARTHUR Machen inspired countless horror and fantasy writers, from HP Lovecraft to Stephen King, but today he is ...>more

Have you heard the one about Gramsci? - COMEDY superstars Harry Hill and Jo Brand; music from New Zealand country soul to Afro blues; Gramsci debates on ...>more

Waist not want not – an African odyssey down Camden Passage - THE African Waistcoat shop in Camden Passage is virtually an institution. You feel it’s ...>more

In your face: voices of the dispossessed in our wealthy city - DESPITE its size and prominence, Arlington House is not seen by many. > more

Following grandfather’s footsteps - FOR an unemployed miner from South Wales whose home town was suffering 90 per cent unemployment, Paris was not the... > more

A whole new migrant experience - KWAME Kwei-Armah’s Polish cleaner inspired his latest play. > more

The fascinating tall story of a landmark high-tech structure - IT is a point of reference across the capital. You can see it from almost anywhere in London. > more

Why personal trainer to the stars is urging us not to join a gym - HE runs one of London’s most famous personal training studios in Islington, but his advice to... > more

O’Brien’s male menopause triumphs - IMMEDITATELY a poet feels he has to earn his sense of worth by winning prizes, his ego gets involved, and he gets caught... > more

Even better than the surreal thing - I NEVER knew that my early love for Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland would one day lead me to the door of such a fine... > more

The bomb shelter apprentice - AS the bombers roared overhead, a shy German girl, recently ar rived in the safe haven of London, chose not to cower in her... > more

Kitsch criticism stung the sculptor - A DEFIANT Paul Day cries: “It’s not complete yet!” And his protest comes amid the complaint of “kitsch” that has been... > more

Will the Devil’s advocate get a pardon for Crippen? - THE lawyer nicknamed “the Devil’s advocate” has been enlisted to win a pardon for one of the world’s most... > more

How to tap into your emotions - A VIDEO of an artist chipping away at his concrete-coated head (pictured) makes for disturbing viewing in the peaceful... > more

A little Irish girl from Archway - IMELDA Staunton, all five feet of her, is an actor who constantly amazes herself by thrills and spills. > more

Suddenly Wesker’s on the up – again - Playwright Sir Arnold Wesker, who in 1964 inspired the original Centre 42 arts centre at the Round House, Chalk Farm... > more

Vagrant Bishop imortalised in paint - JUST who was The Bishop? The first of five close readings associated with the excellent Robert Lenkiewicz exhibition at the... > more

Scenes from the streets - THEIR likenesses are normally captured on grainy CCTV images: standing on the street corners, hoods pulled up, they have a... > more

The triumph of an independent literary legacy - BUSINESS life began with the spare bedroom being turned into a temporary office. > more

Adventures with the Dalai Lama - I LEFT innumerable carbon footprints across the world last week, but I plead not guilty. They were caused by my... > more

Crimebuster takes on Hollywood - IN the world of the graphic novel, swar thy crimebusters root out evil wherever it appears and justice... > more

Dannie, the doctor who writes - IT was a still rather melancholy Dannie Abse who appeared at Burgh House in Hampstead last week to talk... > more

Soho dandy’s long lost scripts - MYSTERY manuscripts penned by the celebrated writer and Soho dandy Julian MacLaren-Ross have been discovered... > more

A first night for Foot’s forensic anti-fascist play - I write to Michael Foot and push the envelope through his letterbox. I want to direct a staged... > more

The temple of Bunny Girl Fairies- IT'S no wonder that Paganism is the fastest growing religion in the UK. City dwellers brought up beside electricity pylons, dilapidated...>more

The ‘scapegoat’ admiral left on history’s seabed - THE firing squad cocked their muskets and took aim. A volley of shots rang out and in front of his ...>more

Antony Sher’s intriguing ‘what if?’ tale of two artists -IN terms of artistic primacy, it is a clash of the titans. Leonardo da Vinci and Michaelangelo, two Renaissance ...>more

Can journalism survive the internet? HAS the internet sounded the death knell for good journalism? Does the future belong to bedroom bloggers who can reach ...>more

A woman far ahead of her time - TONGUES were wagging as soon Angelica Kauffmann arrived in London. It was not just the fact that she was a portrait artist of ...>more

Get the audience back into the action - Gavin Henderson, the newly insta lled as principal of the Central School of Speech and Drama – genial and dapper ...>more

Russians in an alien landscape - FOR new-wave post-soviet artist Dmitry Sandjiev the story of his epiphanic art ­conversion reads like a report from the X-Files...>more

A Caribbean hothouse for the arts in a cold climate - FORTY-one years ago a group of intellectuals from the Caribbean would regularly gather in a tiny flat in...>more

An inside job for poet Hegley - POET John Hegley is a regular on the entertainment circuit – his annual gigs at the Edinburgh Festival are on the must-see list... > more

From Cuban tablecloths to the walls of Hollywood stars - THE phrase “children of the revolution” is now bandied about to sell everything from the latest rock... > more

Gene’s lucky star - BETSY Blair knows the secret of success. The Hollywood star of the 1940s and 1950s can write the magic formula down – an ingredients list... > more

Take a walk down memory street - KENNETH Williams, who lived above his father’s hairdressing shop at number 57 until he was 30, was just one of the many... > more

Grayling chips in on ID tags - WITH his wavy, whitening hair, and balanced demeanour, AC Grayling is quite the philosopher. > more

Bright talent from the dark side - NIGHTMARES were the reason Robert Wynne-Simmons began to write. > more

Murder at the Angel - IT'S 40 years since playwright Joe Orton was brutally murdered in his Islington flat by his jealous live-in lover Kenneth Halliwell. But interest in the...>more

The five ladies who shared the house that Louis built - LOUIS MacNeice did not see it coming, though his wife’s behaviour towards the tall American house guest ...>more

Bright sparks of the big screen - HOLLYWOOD actresses are pretty thin on the ground in Kentish Town, and scarcer still in low-budget British films. Not so...>more

Views from the inside - ALMOST two thousand works of art by prisoners are on display at Wormwood Scrubs. The exhibition, an extension of the ICA’s Insider Art show...>more

Portrait of the poet as a thinking man - IT is a measure of Louis MacNeice that as he stood over the grave of fellow Irish poet WB Yeats, re-interrred from... > more

Sometimes, art for art’s sake is OK - SOME people will really hate it, says art collector Anita Zabludowicz. > more

The room that made a William Morris socialist - MICHAEL Foot has many heroes: Nye Bevan, William Hazlitt, HG Wells, Jonathan Swift and his father, Isaac. > more

Looking for something to sing about - IF you enjoy singing and want something rewarding to do every week, why not join a choir? > more

Little orphan lives revived - MERCY Draper, aka Foundling 2767, was born Elizabeth Chambers on October 24, 1756 in the parish of Castle Eaton, Wiltshire...>more

Yes, Prime Minister - IT was April 1975. A snowy day. I waited in the central lobby of the House of Commons to be taken to lunch. My host was Prime Minister Harold ...>more

Peace from the ashes of destruction - IT is Monday morning in the Basque town of Gernika and the market place is bustling. Market day is the... > more

Unlocking the creative side of the artists behind bars - IS art redemptive? Can the very act of picking up a pen or a paintbrush touch something in the soul... > more

Boy George, the prodigy who was toast of Europe - A BUZZ is growing around composer Julian Josephs’ new jazz opera, Bridgetower. And in a matter... > more

Storey for our times - DAVID Storey, the Booker Prize-winning novelist and playwright, who celebrates his 74th birthday next month, was in open... > more

Distant voices - BEFORE 1920 nothing in the Chechen language was written down. All of the country’s proud heritage and its many struggles were sung... > more

The naked and the dead - FIRST impressions always count. So when you see three giant dinosaurs towering above the classical courtyard entrance to the... > more

Take a trip to Africa – in London - FORGET Bollywood – a celebration of all things African kicks off in London on Saturday. > more

The Tiger author who came out for a chat - WHEN Judith Kerr was a child in Berlin in the early 1930s, she was impressed when her theatre critic father was... > more

‘Watch Big Brother to see we’re a lousy lot’ - THE BIG row over Celebrity Big Brother “took the manhole cover off the subterranean dirty currents of British racism”... > more

The fast comedian behind Young Bond - CHARLIE Higson spent formative comic time with Harry Enfield on the appropriately named Merryville Estate in Hackney. > more

Jack sets his politics to a classy jazz riff - JACK Shepherd, star of the top-rated 1990s television detective series Wycliffe, is back in north London indulging the two... > more

Why doubt matters to the relaxed Rabbi - WHEN Lionel Blue told his mother he was going into the ministry, she burst into tears. > more