Holst: bringer of jollity

‘Dear Mr Grieg: I am writing to you in connection with a plan that I propose to implement, and in which I wish to invite your participation.’ The tone is impeccably formal and business-like, but the l

Dear Simon, Reading Larry Brayshaw’s letter, A Knockout Visit, in the July issue, reminded me of the time I also met a British heavyweight boxer. Dick Richardson was based in Staines and we would meet

When Thomas Joshua Cooper and Paul Hill set out in 1974 to meet and interview the ‘movers and shakers’ of 20th century photography (see Dialogue with Legends, AP 1 April) they had no idea that the project would take four years and become a unique archive that is still in print. Paul Hill describes the interview with American photographer Imogen Cunningham (1883-1976) followed by selected extracts from the recorded encounter in 1975.

Claire Jackson’s opinions on Brahms (Hero or Hype?; August) resonated with me. I studied his First Symphony for O-Level, and his Fourth for A-Level. Then at college, my piano teacher insisted I learn

Goethe: A Life in Ideas Matthew Bell (Princeton ...

A cyanotype of a fern leaf by early photographer Anna Atkins soared above its estimate in Surrey and ‘the most striking likeness’ of Horatio Nelson is drawing every eye at the LAPADA Fair