On one level he seems so direct, so simple, so uncomplicatedly appealing. Schubert could turn on heart-lifting melody with the same ease that most of us would turn on a tap. Often he seems happy just

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

Iris Murdoch’s unseen poetry, transcribed for the first time

‘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

Middleland: Dispatches from the Borders Rory Stewart (Jonathan ...

Tennyson’s embrace of science and catastrophe theory