Scandinavia in slow motion
Karl Ove Knausgaard is a tedious chronicler of his own life
Politics, Ideas and the Arts
Civilisation: Do we know it when we see it? He did
The presenter the BBC chooses to remake Kenneth Clark's seminal series has a tough act to follow
Here’s to the Bauble Makers
An exhibition of folk art at Tate Britain is a reminder of the human need for creation and tradition
Treating Composers as Researchers is Bonkers
Music's artistic merit does not depend on academic criteria-as I know from experience
The Civilised Connoisseur
With his inherited wealth Kenneth Clark amassed an art collection that reads like a museum catalogue
In Search of the Incomparable Max
I discovered Max Beerbohm as an undergraduate. Rereading his work today has been just as enjoyable
War, Poets, and the Poetry of War
Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon should be remembered as soldiers who were brave enough to show us what war was really like
The Intellectual of The Masses
John Carey sticks up for 'ordinary life' in his memoir The Unexpected Professor
Very Young Ladies and the Tramp
Peter Ackroyd's new biography shows that Charlie Chaplin was an incorrigible womaniser but a brilliant innovator
Final Cut of a Joyous Geriatric
Matisse’s cut-outs are free from the brooding and nostalgia that haunt the late works of so many artists
Objectively Illuminating
A new collection of Bernard Williams’s essays and reviews serves as a reminder of the academic’s restless intelligence
When the House Came First
Today’s career politicians could learn a lot from John Biffen, an MP who hated soundbites