September 1904 elks but no electricity, as the sibelius family moves house

CREATIVITY HAS LONG REIGNED IN SWEDISH LAPLAND — WHERE THE SÁMI HISTORICALLY USED THEIR INGENUITY TO SURVIVE THE COLD, DARK WINTERS, AND REGIONAL ARTS AND CRAFTS STILL FLOURISH

JOHANN KERNER saw the woman coming out of the darkness. She looked ancient and she moved as slowly as a snail, her back bent. She was the most likely source of information he had seen on his travels.

‘I accepted the commission partly for the money, and partly because I have long wanted to try my hand at this sort of music,’ wrote Tchaikovsky to Rimsky-Korsakov. For the sum of 800 roubles (around £

Austenland – is there such a place? If so, it’s to be found in drawing rooms and parlours, not in sweeping vistas. So it’s appropriate that the Hampshire village of Chawton, Jane Austen’s home for the

An old man lives at the bottom of my garden. His name is Robert Barkus, or Bakehouse, or Bagust. Nobody is quite sure. But I often sense him around when I’m gardening, and I’ve found out a fair bit ab

This week’s dream: a little corner of Blighty ...