The Life And Opinions of Andrew Rilstone

Using analogies sometimes helps me to think straight. I think they may sometimes help other people think straight as well.  Jesus once s...

I don't think that "having false beliefs about" and "hating" are necessarily the same thing. Er. that's it, ...

Some Suitable Songs For The Season

(warning: stayed up very late last night listening to folk music, got on coach very early this morning to travel oop north to visit friends,...

Appendix Well, it's obviously a mess, but. There is a famous story about a Catholic and a Jew who wanted to get married. The...

Unapologetic  by Francis Spufford I am old enough and uncool to have sung "I serve a risen Saviour" without any sense of iron...

Gotterdammerung Covent Garden In one respect, the Ring is a lot like Star Wars. Wagner wrote a single opera called Siegfried. He r...

Siegfried Covent Garden The English National Opera (the less snooty wing of the London Opera Scene) is currently engaged in a risible...

Das Rhiengold Die Walkurie Covent Garden There is never, ever an encore at an English opera — Jonathan Miller wouldn’t even allow th...