Eurofile

CHARLIE CONNELLY on a new book which takes us to a much storied corner of Europe. Confinement breeds wanderlust. If the current situation is teaching us anything positive it’s how to appreciate freedoms of which we thought practically nothing before, from seeing pasta on the shelves in a supermarket to throwing some clothes into a […]

PETER TRUDGILL on the names of English counties and US states. It makes perfectly good sense that the names of many of the counties of England should have their origins in the dominant language of the country, English. Rather obviously, Norfolk was originally two English words, north folk, and similarly Suffolk derives from south folk. […]

TIM WALKER recounts interviewing American actress Lauren Bacall, whose life remained shaped by Humphrey Bogart even after his death. Lauren Bacall’s publicist was adamant that the star would talk to me about any subject under the sun, except her first husband, Humphrey Bogart. ‘She feels she’s talked about him quite enough,’ he said. ‘So I’d […]

Different from the others, German actor Conrad Veidt goes down in history as one of the most remarkable European lives. CHARLIE CONNELLY reports. Dr Caligari was a showman in the old-fashioned mould. Drawing a crowd by ringing a handbell outside his fairground tent, he’d then sweep his arms high and wide, cape rising with them […]

PETER TRUDGILL on how some ‘antiquated’ words drop out of use In George Borrow’s 1843 book The Bible in Spain, he reports one of his interlocutors, a servant, as saying to him: ‘Though I have been turned out of so many families, I was never turned out of that one; and though I left it […]

A stunning musical heritage is one of the things that keeps this disparate nation together – even through the hard times. SOPHIA DEBOICK reports ‘Music is our cotton, our gold and our diamonds,’ says Grammy-winning Malian musician Toumani Diabaté, a key ambassador for the music of his homeland. Landlocked and half desert, Mali boasts a […]

With no more plays to review, TIM WALKER reviews the stars he’s met, starting with Roger Moore and one role that really mattered to him The director Stephen Unwin has a question he puts to people who want to work for him on his productions. ‘Don’t you just love stars?’ he’ll say, smiling broadly. All […]

Even on its first night, Sebastian Barry’s powerful piece about the redemptive power of human spirit was living on borrowed time. Trafalgar Studios, London The despair at the first night of On Blueberry Hill was all-pervading, if unspoken. It was, however, clear enough on the faces of the celebs who posed for pictures on the […]

How Italians are using their shared musical heritage to get through a national crisis. Medical staff from Rome’s Forlanini Hospital step out with protective masks to join a flash mob performance of “Volare”. Picture: Getty Images – Credit: Corbis via Getty Images Across Italy, music has been connecting people as 60 million have been confined […]

TIM WALKER reviews Blithe Spirit at Duke of York’s in London – now closed due to coronavirus. So many people these days seem to want so many other people ‘to go back to where they came from’ 
that the phrase is becoming wearying, but poor old Charles Condomine has more legitimate reason to use it […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY reviews Graham Swift’s latest novel, a touching evocation of the end of an epoch Crowds flocking to a coastal seaside resort in September 1980. – Credit: Archant Brighton was characteristically busy during the summer season of 1959. As well as the ice creams, deck chairs and dodgems there was a huge choice of […]

PETER TRUDGILL on the sometimes confusing way in which surnames seem to indicate nationality People with the surname Inglis are usually Scottish. That might seem rather strange, because the name is the Scots-language word for ‘English’ – and why would Scottish people have been called Inglis? But actually of course there would be no point […]

The Icelandic capital has had a cultural impact out of all proportion with its size, says SOPHIA DEBOICK. Iceland’s iconic natural features belie the new dance craze taking the capital by storm. PHOTO: C Hutchinson – Credit: Archant Rarely has the world needed a silly dance craze more, and Iceland – a place of deep […]

JASON SOLOMONS talks to the director of Radioactive, a powerful film not only about the pioneering scientist but her research that changed the world Marie Sklodowka Curie (1867 – 1934) in her laboratory. She shared a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 with her husband Pierre for their work in radioactivity. In 1911 she became […]

SOPHIA DEBOICK reports on the troubled yet creative Mexican city. Tijuana is a city in crisis. Home to one of the world’s busiest border crossings, it has become a flashpoint in Trump’s border wall war. Its international bridge is a principal point of entry to the US and in this city Mexicans running from the […]

TIM WALKER reviews The Prince of Egypt at the Dominion Theatre in London. I apologise for the late arrival of my review of The Prince of Egypt, but, then again, the show itself took its time on opening night. After about half an hour, Scott Schwartz, the director, walked out on to the empty stage […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY explores the outbreak of the Spanish Flu and its reminder of mankind’s vulnerability. Red Cross volunteers fighting the Spanish flu epidemic in the United States, 1918. Photo: Apic/Getty Images. – Credit: Archant At 1600 Clifton Road in Atlanta, Georgia, lives a centenarian. To visit, however, one must don full protective clothing and breathing […]

Charlie Connelly explores the life of Jean-Pierre Blanchard – the balloonist with an inflated sense of his own importance. The morning of January 7, 1785, dawned bright and clear and the coast of France was clearly visible across the Channel from the castle overlooking Dover. The Channel had always made England a fortress. Twenty one […]

The Polish capital is freighted with a traumatic past but musically that has never held it back, says Sophia Deboick In the last century, Warsaw became a byword of bleakness and destruction. A city completely levelled by the Nazis after the failed Warsaw Uprising of the summer of 1944, in its communist era it was […]

TIM WALKER reviews at Pass Over at the Kiln Theatre in London. Theatre directors talk sometimes about doing “word plays”, which I’ve always taken to be a slightly withering way of saying they’re getting together some actors to spout a lot of text. The old rule is “show, don’t tell”, but how else can a […]

PETER TRUDGILL assesses just how (il)logical certain languages are. Over the years there have been plenty of people who have not hesitated to assert that French is a “very logical language”, the implication being that other languages are less so. But it is actually rather easy to point to aspects of French which do not […]

The complex history of the eastern Mediterranean means there are individuals who have defied their ‘national identities’. PETER TRUDGILL reports. Many people in southeastern Europe would agree that it is correct to say that Turks are a Muslim people who speak Turkish and that Greeks are a Christian people who speak Greek. That is certainly […]

TIM WALKER reviews The Upstart Crow at Gielgud Theatre, London. There’s a kind of comedy – and writer of comedies – that makes you think how funny a line is, but, for one reason or another, you don’t laugh. The Upstart Crow is such a comedy and Ben Elton is such a writer. I don’t […]

SOPHIA DEBOICK on a genre which tells the story of a city – and a nation – through the good times and the bad. “Without the streets or dusks of Buenos Aires, a tango cannot be written.” This was how Jorge Luis Borges, Buenos Aries’ – and Argentina’s – most famous poet summed up the […]

PETER TRUDGILL on the surprisingly wide array of surnames derived from colours. Football fans will know that Kevin De Bruyne is the brilliant midfielder who plays for Manchester City as well as for the Belgian national team. They may not all be quite so familiar with other foreign soccer stars such as the Spanish international […]

A play which is all about saluting strong women was recreated at Young Vic Theatre in London. 7. Zephryn Taitte in Nora A Doll’s House (c) Marc Brenner – Credit: Archant When Henrik Ibsen wrote A Doll’s House in 1879, he recognised the fight for gender equality was never going to be a quick and […]

CLAUDIA PRITCHARD on a stunning new show of paintings from a moment in history when the country and its rulers were at their most self-aggrandising. peter lely self portrait – Credit: Archant Upon the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, and faced with the task of restating its majesty, Charles II appointed a spin doctor. […]

PETER TRUDGILL on the correct use of ‘best’ – a grammar ‘rule’ it is safe to ignore. After a football match it is often said by those talking about the event that “the best team won” – or in the case of a losing team managed by Jose Mourinho, that the best team did not […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY on Snow, Dog, Foot, a moving novel about living life alone in a complex existence high up in the Alps. Sometimes the life of a hermit can be a very appealing prospect. Not being answerable to anyone, living entirely self-sufficiently and feeling completely separated from the comings, goings and machinations of the rest […]

TIM WALKER reviews Endgame/Rough for Theatre II at The Old Vic Theatre, London. Endgame/Rough for Theatre II. Photo: contributed – Credit: Archant Stephen Unwin, in his excellent book So You Want To Be A Theatre Director?, came as close as anyone to defining what it is to give an effective performance on stage. “The good […]

Once a byword for glamour and exuberance, the Chinese city was effectively silenced for much of the 20th century. But now it is becoming a centre for music publishing and distribution, says Sophia Deboick. The financial district of Pudong in Shanghai. Photo: Getty Images – Credit: AFP via Getty Images Few places have been subject […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY runs his eye over the ever-growing range of literary podcasts Back in the olden days of broadcasting you’d struggle to find much in the way of literary discussion or representation coming through the ether. On television you’d get the odd parasol-twirling adaptation of a Regency novel, jowly men in heavy tweed jackets sitting […]