Nigeness

 Fifty years ago today, in a Vienna hospital, W.H. Auden died, his heart having finally succumbed to the effects of what he called 'the ...

 'Mr and Mrs Dursley of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.' Some rea...

 Born on this day in 1717 was Horace Walpole (formally Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford), man of letters, antiquarian, politician, art hi...

I know I'm getting older (as we all are, as we all know), but it still came as a bit of a jolt to realise that a few days ago it was the...

 A version of this image turned up on my Facebook homepage today, pointing the remarkable resemblance between the 'Friend' from Raph...

 Born on this day in 1902 was the one-of-a-kind poet and novelist Stevie Smith. Patrick Kurp marks the anniversary, and celebrates Smith...

 One of the pleasures of this phase of my life has been discovering the extent of my ignorance about music – discovering, that is, how much ...