Willie Walton may have been slothful, diffident and a womaniser - but, as Mahlerman reveals, 'melody poured out of him'... Regular readers of Lazy Sunday (I probably have at least three) may remember that in a recent survey of the life of Sergei Prokofiev, an unavoidable conclusion was established: that he ... Read More...
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Continuing our 10-part weekly serialisation of Jonathan Law's The Whartons of Winchendon... As we saw last week, Goodwin Wharton was able to communicate with the fairies. But that was merely a warm-up, as before long he was receiving messages direct from God, with bizarre consequences... It was in the October of 1684 ... Read More...
If you thought The Hellfire Duke was something else, wait until you meet his uncle Goodwin - as we continue our weekly serialisation of Jonathan Law's The Whartons of Winchendon... Rismin! Accoron! Osmindor! Rumbonium! High summer in deepest Bucks – and something very strange is stirring in the woods. The woman stalks slowly ... Read More...
This week Mahlerman turns his attention to the Late Quartets of Beethoven - music so great that even T S Eliot would struggle to put it into words... "I should like to get something of that into verse before I die." This is how TS Eliot, in a letter to his friend ... Read More...
Continuing our weekly serialisation of Jonathan Law's The Whartons of Winchendon, we meet Philip Wharton, son of Thomas. His pious grandfather had been known as 'The Good Lord', but Philip, founder of 'the Hellfire Club' (devoted to drinking, lewdness, and puerile acts of blasphemy), was a somewhat different character... May it please ... Read More...
Mark Pack explains why the work of a now almost forgotten political novelist is worth seeking out... A best-selling author shifting millions of books in the post-war decades, a renowned public intellectual, a friend of celebrities such as Marlon Brando, a highly respected political scientist and famous enough to feature in ... Read More...
Continuing our weekly serialisation of Jonathan Law's The Whartons of Winchendon, the story of Thomas Wharton takes a turn for the darker and stranger... Although Tom Wharton spent his last years in the incongruous role of a much honoured elder statesman, he would be outlived by one last, semi-mysterious scandal – a ... Read More...
A real treat this week as Mahlerman hails the 'aural magic' of Claude Debussy, the leading exponent of musical impressionism... When Beethoven introduced his Third Symphony (Eroica) at the birth of the 19th Century, nothing like it had been heard before. The density of his ideas, the challenging way he develops ... Read More...
Frank embarks on a quest to find Aphinar, the mysterious place mentioned by Arthur Rimbaud on his deathbed... ONE LOT : A SINGLE TUSK ONE LOT : TWO TUSKS ONE LOT : THREE TUSKS ONE LOT : FOUR TUSKS ONE LOT : TWO TUSKS To the Director Dear Sir I have come to enquire if I have anything ... Read More...
Continuing our weekly serialisation of Jonathan Law's The Whartons of Winchendon (published for Kindle by Dabbler Editions and available to buy from Amazon now), we learn more about Thomas Wharton: powerful political fixer, habitual liar, saviour of the nation and pox-ridden traitor... And so, rather implausibly, in the last weeks of 1688, Tom Wharton ... Read More...
