Philip Hensher

Recently by Philip Hensher

Philip Hensher: Censoring TV isn’t a minority interest

Monday, 14 June 2010

Notebook

Philip Hensher: Too soon to call time on a vintage show

Monday, 7 June 2010

Last Of The Summer Wine: Anyone hearing the news that the BBC’s sitcom Last Of The Summer Wine is to come to an end is going to say one of three things. "Christ, is that crap still going on?", "My gran used to like that crap, after she developed Alzheimers", or "That crap’s the Queen’s favourite programme, apparently."

Philip Hensher: It was secrecy, not privacy, that Laws wanted

Monday, 31 May 2010

There are notoriously no ethnic minority Liberal Democrat MPs, and only one serving peer

Philip Hensher: 'Comedy' was the word for my exam

Monday, 24 May 2010

Notebook

Philip Hensher: It’s as simple as holding hands

Monday, 17 May 2010

Notebook

Philip Hensher: Let’s hear it for ‘baggage-handling’

Monday, 10 May 2010

Notebook

Philip Hensher: We the panel hoped to surprise: we even included two painters

Wednesday, 5 May 2010

"Well," a journalist and art-world insider said to me, slightly reprovingly. We were at the breakfast to announce the shortlist for this year's Turner Prize, which I've been judging this year. "Normally I manage to guess at least one artist in advance." I apologised: but secretly I felt rather pleased.

Philip Hensher: Tories have given up on the gay vote

Monday, 3 May 2010

Notebook

Philip Hensher: At least make use of the Papal visit

Monday, 26 April 2010

Notebook

Philip Hensher: Anonymity protects too many critics

Monday, 19 April 2010

Amazon know your real name. Why do they allow their reviewers to post under pseudonyms anyway?

Philip Hensher: A class act always appeals

Friday, 16 April 2010

The Week In Culture

Philp Hensher: A few more ruins is just what we need

Thursday, 15 April 2010

David Cameron launched his party's manifesto at Battersea Power Station the other day. The implication was that the vast, decaying bulk of the famous building was an example of the sort of neglect and abandonment which his government would put right.

Philip Hensher: Let's start counting the cost of health

Monday, 5 April 2010

Since I was 14, I've used an inhaler for an ongoing but not generally serious medical condition. It gets renewed every month or two; I think nothing of it. Last week, for the first time, I just didn't have time to go to my NHS doctor to order a repeat prescription.

Philip Hensher: Greatness that I didn't even have to pay for

Monday, 29 March 2010

It was a noble gesture to make this marvellous Kobke exhibition free

Philip Hensher: Why Austen would never win the Booker

Monday, 22 March 2010

The ambitious novel with a regard for humour is not dead, but is beleaguered

Philip Hensher: Silence can be golden in our critical world

Monday, 15 March 2010

Andrew Lloyd Webber's new musical, Love Never Dies, a sequel to Phantom of the Opera, opened in London last week. The original Phantom opened in 1986, and since then an enormous phenomenon has transformed our lives: the internet. In 1986, strange to say, if you wanted to find out what a theatre production was like, you read a critic's view, or you called a theatre-going friend and asked what he thought about it.

Philip Hensher: Why don't we put animals on trial?

Monday, 8 March 2010

The Swiss love a referendum – there's always some poster in the streets advising you whether to vote for or against some occasionally bizarre proposition. A few months ago it was whether to allow minarets to be built. Yesterday, it was on the question of whether to allow animals to have their own legal representation in court.

Philip Hensher: The waste of time that is careers advice

Monday, 1 March 2010

Even now, children of doctors become doctors, and children of manual labourers become manual labourers

Philip Hensher: Homeopathy is a waste of NHS money

Monday, 22 February 2010

We don't object to people spending their healthcare money on anything they choose

Philip Hensher: We have a right to know BBC salaries

Monday, 15 February 2010

If you work for the BBC, you are, like a lottery winner, allowed to tick the "no publicity" box

Philip Hensher: Polite guests always eat the weirdest meat

Monday, 8 February 2010

What a nightmare. You're asked out to dinner by some new friends. You really want to be a good guest – they're nice people, you want the evening to be a cheerful one. They take your coat, sit you down, give you a drink and a peanut. And then you notice that there's a slightly strange smell permeating everything. You don't say anything just yet, but they must have noticed something. "We're cooking you our favourite dish," they say. "It's a family favourite." "How lovely. What is it?" you say. "Boiled seal," they reply. "The kiddies clamour for it."

Philip Hensher: Salinger's legacy may lie in ashes

Monday, 1 February 2010

The last time J D Salinger made a considered, edited literary statement was in 1965. It was a long and bizarre short story, called "Hapworth 16, 1924". It came out in The New Yorker, but has never been published in permanent form. Since then, until his death the other day, as all the world knows, he stopped publishing altogether.

Philip Hensher: Terrible news made worse in the telling

Monday, 25 January 2010

Friends and family were astonished to read in La Nazione an interview with Guido

Philip Hensher: Google's book 'deal' has left me confused

Monday, 18 January 2010

I don't like the prospect of someone in another country proposing to fiddle with my ownership of my own books

Philip Hensher: Lifelong lessons learnt at the double bass

Monday, 11 January 2010

The Festival of British Youth Orchestras has been cancelled this year for lack of funds. It takes place every August in Edinburgh. It's had some problems recently in fulfilling its remit – it's become overwhelmingly a festival of Scottish youth orchestras, last year attracting only one orchestra from elsewhere in Britain.

More philip hensher: