The editors' blog

THE GIFT THAT STOPS GIVING

~ Posted by Isabel Lloyd, December 18th 2012

There are many pluses to being an editor at Intelligent Life, but one element of the job that may at first glance look like a huge plus actually adds up to a minus. It’s the freebies.   

THE RUSHDIE RATINGS

~ Posted by Nicholas Barber, December 17th 2012

KRAFTWERK FANS ON THE LINE

~ Posted by James Manning, December 14th 2012

ABSURD PERSONS PLURAL

~ Posted by Anthony Gardner, December 12th 2012

Earlier this month I went to a lecture by the American novelist Richard Ford. Called "Why novels are smart", it was brilliant and thought-provoking. But my thoughts were also provoked by the British academic who introduced him, commending—among other things—his "prose styles".

HE WON'T BE FILMED PRAYING

~ Posted by Maggie Fergusson, December 11th 2012

 "Bread of heaven, bread of heaven, Feed me till I want no more…" 

So swelled the Welsh male voice choir in the Guard Room at Lambeth Palace as guests at the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Christmas party tucked into mini fishcakes and toads-in-the-hole in an atmosphere of wistful celebration. 

THE BEAUTY OF BOWIE

~ Posted by Tim de Lisle, December 10th 2012

AN OKAVANGO IN OXFORD

~ Posted by Caspar Henderson, December 10th 2012

It is 80 steps from my front door in Oxford to the river stairs upstream of Folly Bridge, where I put my kayak on the Thames. Downstream the river flows straight for about a quarter mile and then veers right, left and then right before it straightens out to reach the lock and the Norman church at Iffley. The paddle down to the lock and back takes about 40 minutes, allowing me to be home, showered and at my keyboard again within an hour, so long as the river is in its normal daze.

LES MISERABLES AND ME

~ Posted by Jo Caird, December 7th 2012

As I sat in the darkness at the world premiere, waiting to hear the first chords of Tom Hooper’s new movie “Les Misérables”, I couldn't help but feel nervous. “Les Mis" has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. The show opened at the Barbican in 1985, adapted and directed by my father, John Caird, and Trevor Nunn, a few months before my third birthday.

BREAKING THE 23RD CENTURY BARRIER

~ Posted by Tim de Lisle, December 6th 2012

SLOBS IN PERFECT T-SHIRTS

~ Posted by Nicholas Barber, December 5th 2012

The Victoria and Albert Museum’s "Hollywood Costume" exhibition does more than let us peek at Indiana Jones’s leather jacket and Dorothy’s ruby slippers. It makes the case that costume designers are artists. It reminds us that, in a film, clothes aren’t just clothes: they’re a labour of love which has been refined for months to convey all sorts of coded meanings about its wearer.