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Arts

Curtain Call/Anthony Quinn

One of the pleasures of writing for the Rust is the collegiate way which information is shared e.g. John Pargiter forever wants betting tips from our sports writers. I cannot help here but readers may have noticed on our arts pages an interest in the pre and post World War Two years : Foyles War [...]

January 28, 2015 // 0 Comments

Foyle’s War

The  weekend before last I had an actresss friend to stay. On the Sunday evening she recommended for watching Foyle’s War. She said the period just after World War Two had been successfully recreated. I was hooked. The following  Sunday I watched the two hour final programme in the series [...]

January 23, 2015 // 0 Comments

A night in Barnes

One of minor hazards of being a columnist for one of the great internet commercial successes of the 21st Century is that my friends and acquaintances are always badgering me for updates upon my attempts to survive in the world of modern technology. [In which context, I hope that more occasional [...]

January 20, 2015 // 0 Comments

In Love and War by Alex Preston

Alex Preston’s third novel In Love and War is impressive. Its the factional story of Esmond Lowndes’ stay in Florence from 1937 to 1945. He is the son of British Union of Fascist leader Sir Lionel Lowndes and, after being sent down from Cambridge after a sex scandal, he goes to Florence [...]

January 20, 2015 // 0 Comments

Film critics

I am not a huge fan of Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo. They are rather too pleased with themselves and listening to them there is more of a banter – and not a very funny one – between them and less of an informed analysis of films. In France film criticism is taken far more seriously. The [...]

January 17, 2015 // 0 Comments

Palace Pier

The other day at lunch with Daffers, Ivan was shouting the odds for Sussex sport. I will leave this to him. Alice Mansfield observed that in the art field Constable lived and painted in Brighton, Jaques Emile  Blanche, more known for his portraiture, lived and worked in Brighton and was a member [...]

January 10, 2015 // 0 Comments

Much ado about nothing?

Some of us beyond the age of forty may never have heard of the pop star Rita Ora, 24, who has just become one of the judges on the BBC singing talent show The Voice, for which the 2015 series begins this weekend. I’m happy to confess that, though I’ve heard the name, I’ve never (knowingly) [...]

January 8, 2015 // 0 Comments

All That Is/James Salter

With the big beasts of American literature – Bellow, Roth, Updike – moving on or in advanced years, there is a vacuum at the top end. Jonathan Franzen, Dave Eggars, John Irving, Thomas Puncheon, Richard Ford, Anne Tyler, Jane Smiley enjoy both critical and popular acclaim. Another who [...]

January 8, 2015 // 0 Comments

Waiting for something to happen

I have owned my current car for nearly three years – it is a large SUV bought on a friend’s recommendation as a means of dealing with my chronic bad back that might have been caused or exacerbated by getting in and out of my previous low-slung A3 hatchback. I cannot be sure – and will never [...]

January 2, 2015 // 0 Comments

Re-heating old stories

My apologies for returning again to the subject of supposedly ‘new’ historical revelations – specifically my objection to them being used to gain publicity for new books (or new editions of old books) etc. –  again, but I am minded to do so by a letter that appears in The [...]

December 31, 2014 // 0 Comments

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