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Philip Hensher

Philip Hensher: We shouldn't be terrified into giving up liberties Independent Porfolio Content

Published: 14 December 2005

It might be as well if those in charge of our security could be a little more open with us

Philip Hensher: Poetry as a weapon in the war on terror Independent Porfolio Content

Published: 07 December 2005

Strange how poetry, of all things, has turned into an austerely functional pursuit, one designed to get results. Twenty years ago, it would have been hard to find anyone who would dissent from the aesthetic proposition that poetry basically made nothing happen, anywhere. The idea that a poem might be used, like a garlic press, for some particular purpose would have seemed absurd. Poetry was basically useless; that was really its justification.

Philip Hensher: Politics, even in Canada, is a noble calling Independent Porfolio Content

Published: 30 November 2005

Michael Ignatieff's potential political career represents a phenomenon which ought to be more common

Philip Hensher: Is murder worse when the victim is a police officer? Independent Porfolio Content

Published: 23 November 2005

Individuals are equal; but crimes, even within the same category, are not equal in horror

Philip Hensher: When opera descends into black comedy Independent Porfolio Content

Published: 16 November 2005

Down at a dress rehearsal for the Royal Opera House's Ballo in Maschera, the second scene begins; Ulrica, Satan's best friend and fortune-teller, hobbles on; and - "What's she got on?" "An old horse's second-best blanket, by the looks of things." "No, I meant - what's she got on her face?" "Oh my God. She's not black, is she?" "No - she's just - she's just." "Oh my God. She's - what's the technical term - " "Blacked up, I believe." "Lovely expression. Haven't heard that for a while."

Philip Hensher: Too much free speech can be damaging Independent Porfolio Content

Published: 09 November 2005

It is strange that Sir Christopher sees nothing peculiar about publishing these valet-like insights

Philip Hensher: Blank walls, public spaces and poetic licence Independent Porfolio Content

Published: 02 November 2005

Cocker's poem has been issued in a way hard to avoid. It's to be mounted in steel letters on a 30-foot high wall

Philip Hensher: As a playwright, he is a fine diarist Independent Porfolio Content

Published: 28 October 2005

Usually, when one says of a play that one has mixed feelings about it, it means the opposite; very unmixed feelings of disdain and dislike. In the case of the revival of Simon Gray's 1975 play Otherwise Engaged, which opens at the Criterion in London next week, the expression is exact. One hardly knows what to wish for it; even someone who, like me, hugely admires and enjoys Gray's writing may contemplate the prospect of the production turning out to be a success with perhaps unworthy doubts.

Philip Hensher: Brilliant art, scandalous conflict of interest Independent Porfolio Content

Published: 26 October 2005

For the Tate to have acquired a work of art by one of its trustees is blatantly improper

Philip Hensher: We must change some of our behaviour Independent Porfolio Content

Published: 19 October 2005

Surely we can admit that group sex on Clapham Common causes annoyance to the wider community

Philip Hensher: The simple and terrifying task of filling a space Independent Porfolio Content

Published: 12 October 2005

The Tate's Turbine Hall offers a brilliant opportunity for artists to compare their own abilities

Philip Hensher: Mr Vettriano doesn't deserve scorn Independent Porfolio Content

Published: 05 October 2005

I think we have to admit that his work has considerable charm, wherever it comes from

Philip Hensher: Foreign languages don't have to be European Independent Porfolio Content

Published: 28 September 2005

In an increasingly globalised world, it is incredible that few schools teach anything other than French

Philip Hensher: Offensive Christians (and offensive theatre) Independent Porfolio Content

Published: 21 September 2005

Rather dizzily, he promises that he will use the Bill to prosecute Islamic bookshops which sell the Koran

Philip Hensher: The curse of celebrification Independent Porfolio Content

Published: 14 September 2005

It makes the heart sink to see the celebrity uniform being attempted by, of all people, cricketers

Philip Hensher: An artful choice, an admirable painting Independent Porfolio Content

Published: 07 September 2005

'The Fighting Temeraire' is an elegaic work positioned deep within the national psyche

Philip Hensher: Music, not sex, will attract crowds to opera Independent Porfolio Content

Published: 05 September 2005

You might as well admit that the National Gallery's Stubbs exhibition is basically a lot of paintings of horses

Philip Hensher: Rejoice that rhyming slang is no longer 'nang' Independent Porfolio Content

Published: 23 August 2005

The cockney of 30 years ago is being replaced by conspicuously multi-ethnic ways of talking

Philip Hensher: If A-level results are like a marathon, then who gets to be Paula Radcliffe? Independent Porfolio Content

Published: 20 August 2005

It would be much more sensible to abandon the whole thing and just publish the marks. Then everyone would know where they stood

Philip Hensher: There's nothing wrong with plagiarism Independent Porfolio Content

Published: 16 August 2005

Not everyone does it, but a lot of writers do; after all, you learn from your predecessors

Philip Hensher: Where's the orchestral variety? Independent Porfolio Content

Published: 12 August 2005

One of the most interesting features of the Proms season is the glimpse it gives of a concentrated range of orchestral traditions. Though the backbone of the season is always supplied by the BBC and other British orchestras, a decent array of visiting ones varies the texture.

Philip Hensher: There's more to a good cookbook than recipes Independent Porfolio Content

Published: 10 August 2005

It is most unlikely that Mrs Beeton ever dispatched a giant turtle herself. It is just there to titillate the reader

Philip Hensher: Can no one criticise Rowling? Independent Porfolio Content

Published: 05 August 2005

Though J K Rowling's new Harry Potter novel must be getting on for 200,000 words, newspapers must have published considerably more than that in commentary on the book, features, reviews and news articles within a day or two. So, unless you've decided to make the examination of Potteriana your life's occupation, you may well have missed a small but fascinating intervention. Terry Pratchett has taken exception to a more than usually foolish Sunday Times article about Rowling, and written in reply in characteristically vivid terms. The newspaper had suggested that before Harry Potter, fantasy fiction was a limp affair of "knights and ladies morris-dancing to Greensleeves".

Philip Hensher: The delusions of world music Independent Porfolio Content

Published: 02 August 2005

There's no real doubt that what you're listening to is basically Western music

Philip Hensher: The modern art of poetic licence Independent Porfolio Content

Published: 27 July 2005

If you painted a picture of St Paul's at sunset, you simply couldn't get anyone to take it seriously any more
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