Throughout his career, our columnist has relied on the music of poetry to provide grace, wisdom and even a distraction from the sounds of war

At the height of his popularity during the early 20th century, Rudyard Kipling emerged as the standout literary star of his generation. Adored by the British reading public for his vivid storytelling

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.

© HEADER DRAWINGS BY MICHAEL HADDAD/HEART Leaves Byung-Chul ...

On the morning of 15 November 2007, Morten Lauridsen stepped onto a podium in the East Room of the White House to receive the National Medal of Arts from president George W Bush. He was 64 at the time

Johannes Vermeer brightened his native Delft with luminous pictures of women caught in intimate moments, but the serenity of his work, of which he produced remarkably little, is at odds with a life mired in debt, as Carla Passino discovers