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Mike Leigh: Happy talk
He may admit Happy-Go-Lucky is ‘anti-miserabilist’, but director Mike Leigh isn’t smiling as he tells Simon Wroe about his new film based in Camden Town.
WATCH Sally Hawkins cy c ling through Holborn to the jovial harrumphs of a brass band, her halcyon clubbing episode at Koko or the several visits to...> more |
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Features
Artist’s ‘poem’ for a neighbour who told her to paint
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Features
Ex-comrades
everywhere. . .
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Features
CND: or how Derrick learned to make movies and hate the bomb
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Features
Reporting from Iraq: ‘anyone different is a potential target’
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Calling style-conscious cyclists - BOBBIN Bicycles is the type of business that would have been inconceivable as little as five years ago.>more
Historic take on the birth of Modernism- FROM John Sloan’s first tentative forays into Modernism to the amorphous, paint-splattered symphonies of Jackson ...>more
Timely reminders of a beautiful borough - TEACHING keep fit provided artist John Joseph with more than just a living while he spent his spare time painting.>more
So many changes in such a short time - PROCLAIMED as the “doyenne of columnists”, Katharine Whitehorn has observed and passed comment on many of...>more
Stop messing about! Forgotten letters record that unique voice - THE pack of letters had lain untouched and forgotten about for some time. But when...>more
Celebration in words and pictures - THE Torriano Meeting House in Kentish Town has provided an outlet for a generation of writers and poets and to celebrate...>more
From Oxford to the Orient - GLADYS Yang was a prodigious translator of Chinese into English who lent a voice to hundreds of writers. As the first student to... > more
How gay hate almost finished Gielgud - ON the charge sheet his name was John Smith. But when he stepped into the dock at Bow Street just one person, a... > more
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
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SPECIAL - BLOOMSBURY FESTIVAL |
A Private Eye view of a cartoonist’s world - THE cartoonist Michael Heath was evacuated from Bloomsbury to Willow Road in Hampstead during... > more
Dream come true for Bloomsbury - THE Brunswick Centre is buzzing. Shoppers throng the array of stores that now occupy its new glass-fronted arcade. > more
Kicking off a great festival of culture - FEW areas of London conjure up the rich cultural and artistic heritage of Bloomsbury – from the museums and colleges... > more
Virginia’s paper round in the park - IT is easy to forget that Virginia Woolf, the writer seen as one of the lynchpins of the Bloomsbury set and a standard-bearer... > more
The changing face of The Brunswick Centre - THE Brunswick Centre has become an iconic example of modernist building design. > more |
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Picasso’s little-known animal period unveiled - PICASSO’S painting of his lover, Dora Maar and her Cat, sold at auction in New York earlier this year for a... > more
Keeping the spirit alive - TWENTY-TWO years ago, Erwin James was sentenced to life imprisonment at the Old Bailey for a crime he has never discussed. > more
Secrets of Prunella's lunchtime monologues - IT is hard to think of Prunella Scales without conjuring up images of Basil’s shrewish wife Sybil in the classic... > more |
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