Author Archives: leslie

The Question of Unworthy Life

The Question of Unworthy Life: Eugenics and Germany’s Twentieth Century; Dagmar Herzog, Princeton University Press, Princeton & Oxford, 2024, 302pp, reviewed by Leslie Jones According to Dagmar Herzog, the history of racial hygiene (a term coined by biologist Alfred Ploetz) … Continue reading

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Romance to Realities

Romance to Realities, The Northern Landscape and Shifting Identities, an exhibition reviewed by William Hartley This is the second exhibition held at Newcastle’s Laing Art Gallery in 2024. Romance to Realities is a ticketed event which chronicles two hundred years … Continue reading

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Endnotes, November-December 2024

Endnotes, November-December 2024 In this edition: Walter Braunfels, ‘lost’ Germanic romanticism * Bruckner from SOMM * Symphony No. 4 by Matthew Taylor * Christmas music from Albion, reviewed by Stuart Millson The Dutton Epoch label is one of those enterprising … Continue reading

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Bloody Gori

 Bloody Gori, by Bill Hartley There is a museum dedicated to Stalin in his birthplace, the Georgian town of Gori. It doesn’t contain many items which actually belonged to him, since Stalin wasn’t the acquisitive sort, at least in the … Continue reading

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Our Tailor-Made Parliament

Our Tailor-Made Parliament Richard Wendorf There has been much gnashing of teeth about the clothing allowance that has recently been bestowed upon members of the Labour cabinet, but the real outrage is not that Lord Alli and others have quietly … Continue reading

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Deconstruction Time

Deconstruction Time Don H Doyle, The Age of Reconstruction; How Lincoln’s New Birth of Freedom Remade the World, Don H Doyle, Princeton University Press, Princeton & Oxford, 2024, hb, 369pp, reviewed by Leslie Jones In Garibaldi, Invention of a Hero, … Continue reading

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Endnotes, October 2024

Endnotes, October 2024 In this edition: more Bruckner from the archives * Dvorak from the Czech homeland * contemporary music from England and America, reviewed by Stuart Millson SOMM Records continues to open its vast treasury of vintage Bruckner recordings, … Continue reading

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An Arbitrary Colourist

An Arbitrary Colourist, Van Gogh, Poets & Lovers Exhibition at the National Gallery, 14 September 2024 – 19 January 2025, press preview 11 September; Catalogue of the exhibition, Cornelia Homburg, featuring the essay ‘Art of the Future’; reviewed by Leslie … Continue reading

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Endnotes, September 2024

Endnotes, September 2024 In this edition: The Man from the Sky; orchestral music by Gerard Schurmann; wood nymphs, country songs and planets at the Proms; two ‘lost’ works by Vaughan Williams, reviewed by Stuart Millson British composer Gerard Schurmann (1924-2020) … Continue reading

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Flying Blind

Flying Blind Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster, Adam Higginbotham, Simon and Shuster, pp 576, reviewed by Bill Hartley Governments can’t resist projects on a gargantuan scale and when they go wrong the disaster is of a magnitude … Continue reading

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