Helen Andrews

Viscount Milner writing to a friend in 1903 about his reason for leaving politics, one of few such explanations not to sound either self-righteous or self-pitying: I am too far, too increasingly out of sympathy with our political system, and with the political attitude of the bulk of my countrymen, . . . . Continue Reading »

Film noir is the easiest to identify and (as these things go) easiest to define of all the genres in cinema, yet it developed quite unintentionally—it wasn’t until well into its maturity that anyone realized it was a genre at all. The term film noir  originated in postwar France . . . . Continue Reading »

Ian Hamilton, Writers in Hollywood : One day Ben Hecht got a call from Bernie Hyman, MGM production head, asking for help on a movie about to be shot. “I won’t tell you the plot,” Hyman said. “I’ll just give you what we’re up against. The hero and heroine fall . . . . Continue Reading »

The book is about Pulp and what Hatherley considers the band’s main themes: class, sex, and urbanism. The following are all direct quotations. Jarvis Cocker, uniquely among male Pop lyricists, was and is a great writer of female characters, which mixes sometimes uncomfortably with songs of . . . . Continue Reading »

Theodore Dalrymple, Second Opinion : I prefer alcoholics to drug addicts. They are more often people of character and are much more amusing. Even their special pleading (for themselves) is often very funny, and they can be brought to see it. By contrast, drug addicts whine horribly and frequently . . . . Continue Reading »

There is a question you need to ask yourself before reading this post, and it’s one of those questions that every man needs to look within and answer for himself. The question is: How many times can you read the phrase “Azerbaijani axe murderer” without bursting out laughing? The . . . . Continue Reading »

John Leonard, Reading for My Life : In 1947, a young American and a middle-aged Japanese climbed a tower in Tokyo to look at the bombed temple and the burned-out plain of the Asakusa. The 23-year-old American was the critic Donald Richie. The 48-year-old Japanese, wearing a kimono and a fedora, was . . . . Continue Reading »

The Moscovore has the buzz : Beekeepers throughout Russia are up in arms over the move of Moscow’s high-profile honey fair from prestigious Manezh Square in the capital’s downtown to a shopping mall on the outskirts of the city: a ruling that would appear to be yet another attempt by . . . . Continue Reading »

5. An IRA man named Ó Conaill always makes a point of drinking more whiskey than any Protestant he may be drinking with, but this policy makes him bad company: He has to go to the toilet every few minutes because he lost a bit of his bladder in a shootout with the RUC. 4. Kevin Myers, our . . . . Continue Reading »

There is a consensus that Reihan Salam is good at what he does, but what is that exactly? Take the blog that he writes for National Review , the Agenda . By what standard could we say that the Agenda is a good blog? You can’t go by accuracy, because Reihan assiduously avoids taking a firm stand . . . . Continue Reading »