Living by the Sword
How conductor Robin Ticciati pulls it off is – well, nothing short of miraculous. This was the opening concert of his final season with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and it was brimming over with the meticulous attention to detail that has characterised his eight years with the orchestra ...
Living by the Sword
Even if you haven’t heard of PP Arnold, you have almost certainly heard her mighty soul voice on a host of classic recordings over the years, from Nick Drake’s Poor Boy to Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer to The KLF’s 3am Eternal and What Time Is Love?
Living by the Sword
Sixteen-year-old Romy Silvers is the only surviving crew member on a spaceship tasked with colonising Earth II in Lauren James’s Loneliest Girl in the Universe (Walker Books, £7.99). Hurtling through space towards an uncertain future, completely alone, Romy is struggling to keep herself together.
Living by the Sword
The Portrait Of A Lady by Henry James ends on one of the most daringly ambiguous suspended chords in literature. Will Isabel Osmond, née Archer, return from her cousin’s deathbed to her husband Gilbert...
Living by the Sword
For the last few weeks, this column has been devoted to the fierce and multi-faceted debate surrounding the removal of the chairlifts from Coire na Ciste in the CairnGorm Mountain ski area. The idea behind...
Living by the Sword
The last few years have seen some notable triumphs for writers who believe that less is more. Perhaps most obviously, Austria’s Robert Seethaler made the Man Booker International shortlist in 2016 for A Whole Life...
Living by the Sword
Saint-Saëns’ Cello Concerto No 1 may not be the most virtuosic in the repertoire, but its compelling lyricism and underlying energy was captured to dazzling effect by soloist Sol Gabetta. Digging deep into the cello strings with her bow...
Living by the Sword
IT’S a pity, in a way, that this touring production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard is not officially part of Scotland’s current Luminate festival of creative ageing, because the mighty tale...
Living by the Sword
THE idea of the jury as a “little parliament” of citizens, and as one of the foundations of our liberty, looms large in British and Scots law. Yet if a jury is a parliament, it’s one where the members are usually obliged to sit in silence...
Living by the Sword
If this year’s BFI London Film Festival got off to a conventional start earlier this week with true-life tear-jerker Breathe (***), Andy Serkis’s directorial debut also showcased something that has been self-evident from his pioneering motion-capture work as an actor in The Lord of the Rings films...
Living by the Sword
It’s about time she started getting things together, but she’s like: ‘I’ve made this carapace for myself to protect myself and now that’s who I am’.” Scottish filmmaker Peter Mackie Burns is talking about Daphne, the eponymous character in his impressive debut feature.
Living by the Sword
THE idea of the jury as a “little parliament” of citizens, and as one of the foundations of our liberty, looms large in British and Scots law. Yet if a jury is a parliament, it’s one where the members are usually obliged to sit in silence...
Living by the Sword
As I have said before, many novels have the equivalent of a Freudian slip. In this work it comes on page 139, where the Edinburgh bookseller and central character, Gilbert Johnson, is reminiscing about...
Living by the Sword
It’s now a little over a month since the chairlift towers came crashing down in Coire na Ciste in the Cairngorm Mountain ski area, and in that time we’ve heard from various people involved in the ensuing debate.
Living by the Sword
Historic Environment Scotland is a Quango, formed in 2015 by a merger of Historic Scotland and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Board members are appointed by the Scottish Government.
