Painter, explorer, writer, archaeologist and theosophist, Roerich was a key figure for Diaghilev and Stravinsky for whom he designed sets and costumes (including The Rite of Spring). He was ... read more
A short biography of Thomas Linley, the Georgian prodigy who was celebrated - with Mozart - by Burney as "the most promising geniusses of the age". But he died very young.
George Balanchine’s spanned the twentieth century. He was a choreographer who trained in Tsarist St Petersburg and reached the peak of his career in New York during the Cold War. This is m... read more
Born in Victorian Sydney, she was presented at Court to Queen Victoria and then married a Prussian count. The marriage was unhappy, and her subsequent marriage to Bertrand Russell's brother ... read more
Is it to exalt the mountain or the climber that the mountain should be climbed? Or to gain a good vantage point for telling things, pace James Baldwin?
CM has become the supreme chronicler of Italy under Mussolini. Indefatigable and brilliant, she turns her attention now to Mussolini's favourite and influential daughter, who married Count C... read more