There has been a tectonic fragility to the early weeks of 2026, the uneasy sense of an old world shifting. New horror in Syria, Venezuela, Greenland, Iran; ongoing terror in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan. In t

Alice Loxton EleanorA 200-mile walk in search of England’slost queen352pp. Pan Macmillan. £22. Many are commemorated in stone, but few so grandly as Eleanor of Castile (d. 1290). Following her unexpec

In 1974, I hitchhiked with my girlfriend Lesley from John o’Groats to Land’s End in 10 days. After 46 years of happy marriage, Lesley died from breast cancer in October 2022. Losing the love of my lif

‘We’re going to have a tonal centre and tap our feet, and that’s the way it is.’ Steve Reich is in full flow, talking to me from his home in New York. ‘The big break, the knife down the line, was betw

TAKING A MAJOR PUNT

Louisiana soul man ROBERT FINLEY overcame his hardscrabble origins, loss and blindness to finally find success in his later life. Amazingly, he believes he still has much to prove. “Most people retire at 65,” he tells Kevin EG Perry. “Hell, I came alive at 65.”