Kurt Vonnegut’s 1973 novel Breakfast of Champions (a slogan from a manufacturer of breakfast cereals) was panned by the New York Times but then spent 56 weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list. Although Vonnegut himself gave the … Continue reading →
Homosexuality was illegal in England when I was at school, and I wasn’t aware of anybody who was gay (a word for homosexual that has a longer history but began to be widely used only in the 70s and 80s). … Continue reading →
When we went to Mexico a year ago our seven-year-old granddaughter asked us to bring back a picture of Frida Kahlo. She had managed to penetrate the awareness of a small girl in South London 70 years after her death. … Continue reading →
Our only aim now is to get home, and it seems that we have a Eurostar ticket that allows us to change it up to an hour before the train departs. Consequently around 7am I walk to Gare du Nord … Continue reading →
The Proms, the series of concerts that run in London from the middle of July to early September, calls itself “the world’s greatest festival of classical music.” Whether it is or not, the festival run by the BBC has the … Continue reading →
‘The art has three factors, the disease, the patient, the physician,’ wrote Hippocrates. Even in Greek times opinions about medicine were mixed; the word pharmakos meant both remedy and poison – ‘kill’ and ‘cure’ were apparently indistinguishable. That double idea … Continue reading →
My walk takes me through the warm but somewhat gloomy streets of Milan. I sit in the garden and read and then drink tea in a cafe. We decide to find breakfast at Stazione Porta Garibaldi. Our taxi driver speaks … Continue reading →
Roy Porter, who died in 2002 aged 51, was said to know more about the 18th century than any then man alive. With a double starred first from Cambridge he joined the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine in … Continue reading →
Twelve years ago I was a member of the Independent Commission on Whole Person Care, which was set up by the Labour Party when Andy Burnham was Shadow Secretary of State for Health. (The title is slightly odd, and my … Continue reading →
Already it’s hot as I walk bedside the river into the old part of Verona at around 7am. I go a different route from yesterday to the far side of the Arena, where I sit in a café and drink … Continue reading →