Oysters Ain’t Safe: Jazzing Up the Environmental Crisis
If you’ve ever stared at an Excel spreadsheet full of grim environmental data and thought,…
Where It All Began: A Festival That Wants To Save Live Music
Imagine a festival that doesn’t care about booking the hottest TikTok star who can barely…
Silent Film Stars: Before Sound Ruined Everything
Before the Kardashians, before TikTok, before actors even had the luxury of speaking on screen,…
Oxford Shoes: The Polished Rebels of the Footwear World
Oxford shoes have a curious way of straddling the line between stiff formality and outright…
The Powdered Whimsy of the British Rococo
You could say the British Rococo era was the eighteenth-century version of wearing an embroidered…
Shells, Silk and Scandal: Inside the World of French Rococo
Picture this: Paris in the early eighteenth century, the Sun King finally setting. Louis XIV…
Felix Mendelssohn: Classical Music’s Most Likable Overachiever
Felix Mendelssohn might just be classical music’s version of a gifted child prodigy who managed…
Baroque: It’s Never Too Much
Baroque. Even the word sounds like it’s wearing an embroidered waistcoat. This was an era…
Jean-Paul Sartre: The Man Who Made Angst Fashionable
Jean-Paul Sartre didn’t want your medals, your prizes, or your bourgeois approval. He wanted freedom.…
The Royal Pavilion in Brighton: A Seaside Fantasy Dressed as a Palace
There are palaces, and then there’s the Royal Pavilion in Brighton. It doesn’t just flirt…
The Surprisingly Dramatic Origins of the Orchestra Conductor
Picture it: Paris, 1820s. A man in coattails, white gloves and an air of absolute…
Franz Schubert: The Quiet Genius
Franz Schubert wasn’t the most obvious candidate for musical immortality. He looked more like a…
World Oceans Day: A Love Letter to the Big Blue Mess
World Oceans Day (8 June) is that annual moment when we all collectively remember that,…
The Shard: London’s Giant Glass Dagger in the Sky
If you ever find yourself wandering through the streets near London Bridge and suddenly feel…
Men’s Dress Codes in Britain
Forget bowler hats and tweed for a moment—though they do have their cameos. British men’s…
Thomas Mann: Europe’s Favourite Pessimist with a Nobel Prize
Thomas Mann never set out to become the literary conscience of Germany, but fate, a…
The Royal Cornwall Show: Three Days of Glory, Gin and Goat Judging
Wadebridge in June is not for the faint-hearted. It's for the wellies-wearing, pasty-munching, sheep-stroking, tractor-appreciating…
Windsor Castle: Royal Drama, Ghostly Dungeons, and a Dollhouse with Plumbing
Windsor Castle is the kind of place that could make your local stately home feel…
Why do restaurants want the Michelin stars?
Why do restaurants want the Michelin stars is a question that might seem simple. Glory,…
Flamenco: Clap, Stamp, Cry
Flamenco goes far beyond dance. It’s a full-body exorcism performed in heels, set to the…
Fado: Songs from the Edge of Saudade
There’s something haunting and magnetic about fado, that melancholic Portuguese music style that seems to…
The Sari Knows Best: India’s Unstitched Superpower
Few pieces of fabric have caused as much graceful chaos across millennia as the sari.…
Caruso: The Tenor Who Made the World Listen
Enrico Caruso wasn’t just a tenor. He was the tenor—the human megaphone who somehow made…
Marilyn Monroe: More Brains, More Books, More Trouble
Marilyn Monroe was not born a blonde. That iconic platinum halo came much later, courtesy…
Urbanism: Why Your City Makes No Sense and You Love It Anyway
Urbanism is the strange lovechild of concrete, idealism, and unintended consequences. It’s what happens when…
Gaudí: Beauty in the Curve
Antoni Gaudí, the man who made buildings melt, twist, shimmer, and spiral like the fever…
Gnaoua Festival in Essaouira
Essaouira doesn’t whisper. It sings, rattles, and stomps. Especially in June, when the Gnaoua Festival…