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Why Germans Can Say Things No One Else Can
We’re hugely dependent on language to help us express what we really think and feel. But some languages are better than others at crisply naming important sensations. Germans have been geniuses at...
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Why We Need to Create a Home
One of the most meaningful activities we are ever engaged in is the creation of a home. Over a number of years, typically with a lot of thought and considerable dedication, we assemble furniture,...
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Easter for Atheists
Perhaps the most boring question one can ever direct at a religion is to ask whether or not it is ‘true’. Of course (this publication believes), none of its supernatural claims can ever be ‘true’ – but...
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The Importance of Architecture
In an odd but quietly very important way, works of architecture ‘speak’ to us. Some buildings, streets and even whole cities seem to speak of chaos, aggression or military pride; others seem to be...
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Art for Art’s Sake
In answer to the question of what art might be for, the established reply is to point out rather scornfully that it isn’t for anything. Art is – as a famous saying goes – for art’s sake. The...
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Two World Views: Romantic and Classical
Romantic Romanticism is a movement of art and ideas that began in Europe in the mid eighteenth century and has now taken over the world. It is hard to go far on almost any issue without encountering a...
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Why do Scandinavians have such impeccable taste in Interior Design?
The superiority of Scandinavian design has been well-charted. The chairs, lamps, tables, sofas and cushions of these prosperous northern democracies have been universally applauded and sought after....
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The Advantages of Staying at Home
Lying in bed late at night or waiting at the platform for the commuter train home, we often daydream about where it would be so much nicer to be: perhaps the beaches of Goa on India’s west coast, a...
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The Pleasure of Room Service
It’s not a very respectable pleasure, but it’s a powerful one all the same. You pick up the phone, balancing the in-room dining menu on your knee, you nip into the shower and flick on the news and half...
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How to Spend a Few Days in Paris
Paris is one of the world’s most famous and visited cities. How should one spend a couple of days there? By answering this, we’ll be examining a host of questions about travel more generally. Often a...
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The Shortest Journey: On Going for a Walk around the Block
A walk is, in a sense, the smallest sort of journey we can ever undertake. It stands in relation to a typical holiday as a bonsai tree does to a forest. But even if it is only an eight-minute interlude...
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The Joys of Sport
For long stretches of our lives, our bodies steadfastly refuse to obey our commands. As babies, the spoon drops straight out of our hand. We can’t get the milk into our mouths. Our legs can’t hold us...
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Pefkos Beach, Rhodes – for Anxiety
You haven’t come to Rhodes to explore the medieval old town or the ancient temple of Apollo. You’ve not been drawn by a longing to try the local delicacy of chickpea fritters and unsalted ewe’s milk...
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Why so Many Love the Philosophy of the East – and so Few That of the West
Miranda Kerr is pretty, successful and very rich. She’s been named the sexiest woman alive. She’s also deeply interested in developing her mind. That means she’s into yoga, chanting, meditation and...
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On the Art of Conversation
Having a decent conversation is something most of us imagine we can do without any problem – and certainly without much thought. These things just happen naturally. Don’t they? But in truth, truly good...
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What We Really Like to Eat When No One is Looking
How do we eat when no one is there to see us? It’s tempting to think that it’s just a solo version of what we do when others are around. One setting, rather than two or more. But, individually, in our...
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The Museum Gift Shop
You’ve been around an art exhibition of a favourite artist. Perhaps it was Barbara Hepworth, the mid-20th-century British sculptor, recently accorded a show by the Tate Gallery in London. On display...
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On Fakes and Originals
Fake, copy, pastiche, forgery, reproduction. Many of the most bitter insults of the art world are designed to denigrate anything which is not the actual product of the master’s hand. People will make a...
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Figs
Every so often, you encounter a fig. It might turn up as a decorative aside to a dessert at a smart restaurant you occasionally go to when you want to mark a special occasion; from a couple of years...
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The First Day of Feeling Well Again
It wasn’t, hopefully, too serious, just enough to keep you in bed, and feeling a bit miserable, for three or four days: you got a flu virus, you had an unusually heavy cold or a bout of tonsillitis....
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