Simon Schama
Playing Nice is beautifully done – but they miscalculated the opening scene
There must have been a time when slow-burn psychological thrillers didn’t start with a scene of high drama followed by…
Me time
‘You may think our modern world was born yesterday,’ said Simon Schama at the beginning of The Romantics and Us.…
I didn’t realise Petra was an ad for Merkel’s immigration policy: Civilisations reviewed
Most of the history I know and remember comes from my inspirational prep school teacher Mr Bradshaw. History was taught…
A clash of two cultures
‘They fuck you up, your mum and dad.’ Philip Larkin’s most famous line has appeared in the Spectator repeatedly, and…
Pornographer-in-Chief
What does Andrew Davies have to say to those who accuse him of gratuitous rumpy-pumpy in his adaptations of the classics? Stephen Smith finds out
Simon Schama’s migration muddle
Sooner or later, in this trade, one runs out of television historians to antagonise. I am doggedly working my way…
