• Home
  • About
    • Plain English
    • Paul Levy
    • Contact
  • Other AJBlogs
  • ArtsJournal

Plain English

Paul Levy measures the Angles

You are here: Home / Archives for 2011

Archives for 2011

Celebrating all the wrong people

December 12, 2011 by Paul Levy Leave a Comment

 "We seem to be a society that celebrates all the wrong people." Who said that? The wisest man in Britain today, Iain Duncan Smith, once caretaker leader of the Conservative Party, Work and Pensions Secretary in the current government. He chairs the cabinet social justice committee, and what he has to say about the summer urban riots is full of good … [Read more...]

Ace Clicker

September 10, 2011 by Paul Levy Leave a Comment

Ace Clicker   I've known the Indian photographer Pablo Bartholomew since the 1980s, when he accompanied me and a troupe of (mostly) French Michelin-starred chefs on our post-publication (of The Official Foodie Handbook) tour of India. Our lot included Pierre Troisgros, Michel Rostang, Alain Dutournier, Jean-André Charial, Jean Lameloise and journalists Gilles Pudlowski, Fay Maschler, Gael … [Read more...]

When does a play open?

September 9, 2011 by Paul Levy Leave a Comment

This question became urgent this week when my autumn roundup of performing arts events went to press on Thursday evening for Friday's paper. The "fact-checker" (I put it in scare quotes as the title is itself redundant: if something really is a fact, it obviously doesn't need checking) altered many of the dates in my piece. Why did she do this? Because she had checked the theatre websites online, … [Read more...]

What I remember about Rupert Brooke

August 11, 2011 by Paul Levy 2 Comments

Alan  Hollinghurst is on the 2011 Man Booker Prize longlist for The Stranger's Child, having - deservedly - won some years ago for The Line of Beauty. The Stranger's Child involves a Rupert Brooke-like poet, essentially gay, who might have fathered a child in this complex plot, which takes in several generations. I'm now trying to read the entire longlist, in … [Read more...]

Heresy or commonplace?

March 11, 2011 by Paul Levy Leave a Comment

Only moments ago, watching the ITV News account of the tsunami resulting from the earthquake in NE Japan, I heard the announcer say that low-lying Pacific Islands were menaced - and that for many of them this was a double blow, as some of them had previously had to be evacuated owing to the consequences of global warming. It strikes me as odd - and interesting - that the TV news presenter can … [Read more...]

Modern British Sculpture?

January 22, 2011 by Paul Levy Leave a Comment

 The exhibition called "Modern British Sculpture" that opened at the Royal Academy today (until 7 April) is a fraud.         It's one of those shows intended to illustrate a theory or make an argument. Its publicity claims: "the exhibition takes a fresh approach, replacing the traditional survey with a provocative set of juxtapositions that … [Read more...]

The Critics’ Critic: A Tribute to John Gross

January 13, 2011 by Paul Levy Leave a Comment

There have been many obituaries of John Gross, who died on 10 January. He was the critics' critic, witty, erudite, and polymathic, a graceful writer and a lightning-quick thinker. His series of Oxford anthologies, his books on Shylock, Joyce and Kipling and his 2001 memoir about growing up in the Jewish East End of London, A Double Thread, will all last; and one of his … [Read more...]

Paul Levy

is almost a citizen of the world, carrying the passports of the USA and the UK/EU. He wrote about the arts in general for the now-defunct Wall Street Journal Europe. [Read More]

Plain English

An Anglo-American look at what's happening here and there, where English is spoken and more or less understood -- in letters, the visual and performing arts, and, occasionally, in the kitchen or dining room. … [Read More...]

 RSS E-mail

Archives

Recent Comments

  • Peter Brown on Remembering Jaime Parladé, the Marquess who Made Marbella Chic: “Parlade’s work is my favorite of all interior designers…..his assemblage of what he likes and how he mixes it all…” Nov 5, 01:00
  • Hala Nasr on The chef, his wife, the British Army and all that fish: “Hi Paul, Thank you so much for writing this. I am doing research on Alexis Soyer. How did you hear…” Sep 22, 18:08
  • bob donovan on John Cornford, the tragedy of a faithful communist: “I really believe that John Cornford was most unusuall as well as courageous. I wish I could have known him.…” Apr 24, 02:03
  • Cathy Kelly (was Mascall). on Remembering Tony Staniland: “I came across this whilst looking for a contact for Anne and Tony. Our mum was great friends with them…” Apr 29, 10:23
  • BARRY HALLEN on Remembering Tony Staniland: “I’m thinking one of his children was Hilary Susan Staniland, the philosopher and a friend whom I met while we…” Apr 20, 16:46
July 2025
M T W T F S S
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031  
« Oct    

An ArtsJournal Blog

Recent Posts

  • Love, Solace and Deadly Nightshade
  • Down Mexico Way (with a detour to Italy)
  • Obituary Hugh Cecil
  • A Slice of Life in Lockdown
  • The Young Rembrandt: not a prodigy

Copyright © 2025 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in