bad wine, Cambridge, cocaine, Julius Caesar, Margaret Thatcher, Shakespeare
In Reviews on March 9, 2010 at 2:14 am
First published in The Tab, 10 March 2010
My God, the wine was awful. The wine in the interval, I mean. We’re not just talking David Hyde Pearce-style “Oh my God it’s just called ‘wine’,” or even out-of-a-box gyppo juice. (It wasn’t, anyway. I saw the bottles.) To give you some idea, I was accompanied to the theatre by a friend from Serbia, who said it was worse than Moldavian vinegar. I don’t know what he means. Maybe you do.
I’m sorry to go on, but I can’t help it. One over-enthusiastic gulp was all it took; now I may never sing again. I tried when I got home; bottom G stuck in my throat. I’ve been gargling with salt for two hours now, and if anything it’s getting worse. I left Wolfson a baritone and came back a counter-tenor. FitzTheatre wine. Just don’t. Read the rest of this entry »
conspiracy theories, Shakespeare, The Catholic Herald
In Reviews on January 16, 2010 at 12:30 pm
Published 15 January 2010 in The Catholic Herald.
In December the Venerable English College in Rome revealed that it had uncovered a mysterious parchment. According to the College, it suggests that Shakespeare spent “missing years” in Rome and that the Bard was a recusant Catholic for most of his adult life.
The evidence amounts to three signatures: those of “Arthurus Stratfordus Wigomniensis”, dated 1585, “Shfordus Cestriensis”, dated 1587, and “Gulielmus Clerkue Stratfordiensis”, dated 1589. Fr Andrew Headon, vice-rector of the College, thinks they should be decoded as: “[King] Arthur’s [compatriot] from Stratford [in the diocese] of Worcester”, “Sh[akespeare from Strat]ford [in the diocese] of Chester” and “William the Clerk from Stratford”. Read the rest of this entry »