Mary ShelleyOn the 200th anniversary of her terrifying story, we uncover the heartbreak that inspired Mary Shelley – and examine the gruesome masterpieces that followed her monstrous creation
One stormy night in 1816, while staying at Lord Byron’s villa near Lake Geneva, an 18-year-old woman tossed and turned in the thunder-filled darkness. Her name was Mary Shelley, and she was having a nightmare about a monster made from scraps of humans. Read More...
TV reviewTelevision & radioReviewThis brilliant show flitted from Covent Garden to Venice to Vienna and Milan in pursuit of the history of opera
I haven’t always had the best relationship with opera. My parents took me to a few – dress rehearsals – when I was a kid, probably with the aim of making me more refined and cultured. Clearly, it didn’t work, I hated it. Everything about it – the ponciness, the fact that it took so long for them to say anything (why couldn’t they speak instead of sing? Read More...
Documentary filmsA new documentary looks back on the highs and lows of the mysterious Pink Floyd co-founder, troubled but too often misunderstood
In rock star portraiture, it behooves a writer to avoid straightforward presentation of cliche. The story of a troubled virtuoso tormented by their own genius, turning to drink and drugs, then flaming out before their time has been told over and over again. And so in the making of Have You Got It Yet? Read More...