Civilisation

Critique

The Wrong Idea of a University

JONATHAN BATE

Higher education has been hijacked by the quangocracy: teaching is neglected, research is distorted by bogus assessment methods, and trust in professional judgement is gone

Art

Rare Visitor fom the Blue Danube Comes to the Mersey

MICHAEL PRODGER

Liverpool is staging the UK’s first comprehensive exhibition of the work of the great Austrian avant-garde artist, Gustav Klimt

Film

All the Nice Girls Love a Poet

PETER WHITTLE

The latest literary biopic, The Edge of Love, presents Dylan Thomas as a dreary boorish philanderer, not a great writer

Music

A Passion for Bach

IAN BOSTRIDGE

After a six-year gap, the tenor returns to his first love, singing the Evangelist in both the St Matthew and the St John Passions with Bernard Haitink

Books

Ordeal by Greek Myth

JOHN GROSS

History Lesson: A Race Odyssey by Mary Lefkowitz

Not a Clash of Civilisations

NOEL MALCOLM

Worlds at War: The 2,500-Year Struggle between East and West by Anthony Pagden

The Art of Being English

CHARLES MOORE

Cold Cream by Ferdinand Mount

Empire of the Bun

RAYMOND SEITZ

The Hamburger: A History by Josh Ozersky

Something Wicked This Way Comes

JENNY MCCARTNEY

The Standing Pool by Adam Thorpe

Television

All Satirical Passion Spent

NICK COHEN

Thatcherism provoked great TV but the makers of Headcases are too liberal, too condescending and not nearly angry enough

Theatre

What is the Matter with the London Stage?

MINETTE MARRIN

The Left has lost its monopoly, but new political plays like Brenton’s ‘Never So Good’ still reveal a tin ear for language