Best books… Richard Holmes The biographer chooses five ...

Alexander Larman on Theatre ● TO KICK OFF ...

Robert Thicknesse on Opera ● ON THE FACE ...

In a candid chat ahead of the release of his memoir We Did OK, Kid , actor, artist and composer Sir Anthony Hopkins reveals how his tough childhood and long battle with alcoholism formed the contented, joyful man he is today

ONE OF THE MOST GRIMLY FUNNY POEMS OF the past century is Philip Larkin’s “This Be the Verse,” with its opening salvo about how our parents invariably mess us up. Larkin used a saltier word for “mess,

“Between you and me …”