Arts: Celebrity Traitors is evil

Arts

By Igor Toronyi-Lalic

This week Rupert Christiansen talks to the 99-year-old impresario Lilian Hochhauser about bringing some of the Soviet Union’s greatest talents to Britain. Richard Bratby is maddened by Royal Opera’s new Parsifal. Sam Kriss shudders as he recalls the blank inhuman face of Mark Zuckerberg and his big watery eyes. Digby Warde-Aldam is pleased to report that the Turner Prize is only half dreadful. Lloyd Evans thinks that James Graham is becoming the new David Hare – and not in a good way. Daisy Dunn finds much to enjoy in Barack Obama’s new podcast. Graeme Thomson tries to pin down exactly why Bill Callahan is so compelling. Sam Leith tries to get excited about chopping off people’s heads with his claws. Rupert is so delighted by Pam Tanowitz’s new work that he watched it twice. And James Delingpole explains why Celebrity Traitors is not just misleading, facile and a massive waste of life – it is in fact evil… Enjoy!

The woman who showed us the real Russia

Rupert Christiansen

Meet the 99-year-old impresario who brought some of the Soviet Union’s greatest talents to Britain

The Standard of Living didn’t make me feel anything

Lloyd Evans

Plus: a wonderful Hay Fever at Wyndham’s Theatre

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Royal Opera’s maddeningly erratic Parsifal

Richard Bratby

Be in no doubt, though: there are musical wonders here

Celebrity Traitors is evil

James Delingpole

It isn’t just misleading and facile and a massive waste of life

The Turner Prize is only 50 per cent dreadful

Digby Warde-Aldam

Simeon Barclay should win but as Kira Freije’s offering is entirely awful I have no doubt that she’ll get it

The Social Reckoning is deeply boring

Sam Kriss

There’s a good film to be made about how Mark Zuckerberg turned into the devourer of souls – but Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Reckoning is not it

In praise of Obama’s podcast

Daisy Dunn

Plus: how did anyone believe the Hitler diaries were real?

Matthew Sweet: The Great Dictator

On this week’s Book Club podcast, Sam Leith is joined by author Matthew Sweet to discuss his new biography, The Great Dictator, about the bestselling novelist Barbara Cartland. They discuss why Cartland was so often dismissed as a joke by literary critics, and how her novels offered generations of women stories of romance, aspiration and consolation. They also delve into the political side of her life, including her opposition to appeasement, her campaigning on behalf of Romani travellers and her close relationship with her brother, MP Ronald Cartland.

Listen now