Culture & History
I write regularly about cultural issues in the British press, including drawing on my work as a historian to provide context for contemporary debate.
I can be irrepressible when talking history: I recently enjoyed explaining the relative sexual virtues of Elizabeth I on Channel 5’s ‘Last Days of Mary Queen of Scots’, and leading a historians’ live-tweet of historical context for the BBC’s Wolf Hall. You’ll also find some of my book reviews, lighter pieces and broader arts writing on this page.
Fake Shakes(peare)
written for The Spectator, 1 February 2011 Plaster the name ‘William Shakespeare’ on your theatre posters, and you’re sure to get bums on seats – even if Shakespeare didn’t quite write the play in question. That’s the rationale behind the slew of productions of the mysterious Cardenio, or Double...
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Music Review: Philip Glass in New Haven, Sprague Memorial Hall
reviewed for The Spectator, 30 June 2010 Philip Glass doesn’t approve of intervals. Last week, at Yale University’s Sprague Memorial Hall, the prolific composer gave a preview of what audiences in Dublin, Edinburgh and Cork could expect from his piano performances a few days later. He...
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Book Review: White is for Witching
reviewed for The Times Literary Supplement, 17 July 2009 WHITE IS FOR WITCHING 192pp. Picador £14.99; 978 0 330 45814 6 by Helen Oyeyemi Miranda Silver cannot stop eating chalk. It scratches her throat and hurts her stomach, but still she eats it. She moves on to plastics, paper, fabric – anything...
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Book Review: Only One Thing On Their Minds
Reviewed for Standpoint Magazine, December 2008 SEX AND SENSUALITY IN THE ANCIENT WORLD 224pp, Yale, 224pp, £25 by Giulia Sissa Female bodies attract male attention. Men spend plenty of time thinking about them, describing them and trying to explain them. They do across Britain and America today, they did...
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Verse Makes A Comeback
written for Standpoint Magazine, August 2008 For the third time in a month I find myself invited to a play in verse. The renaissance of verse drama is an unexpected 21st-century phenomenon. Still common in the 19th century (think Ibsen and Oscar Wilde), verse drama became a rarity in the 20th century, with a...
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