Journalist, biographer of John Ruskin and brilliant art critic who wrote for the Guardian and Independent on Sunday
November 2022
Ruskin’s ‘loveliest’ view under threat in Kirkby Lonsdale
Tourist spot made famous by Ruskin, Turner and Wordsworth may be washed away if £1m is not found for repairs
April 2021
Effie Gray review – Emma Thompson’s entertaining take on a doomed Victorian marriage
Dakota Fanning performs with gusto in this slightly hammy account of John Ruskin and Effie Gray’s marital disaster
March 2020
Books interview
Phyllis Rose: ‘Power still resides in marriage’
The US author on her reissued classic about Victorian literary couples, the danger of ‘cancelling’ writers, and why gossip is underrated
September 2019
Country diary
Country diary: the stream's lazy crawl is deceptive
Gillfield Wood, South Yorkshire: After heavy rain, the Totley Brook has teeth, and the threat of flooding is ever-present
May 2019
Art Weekly newsletter
Kathy Acker's astonishing vision and Bacon bares all – the week in art
The ICA illuminates Acker’s words with some terrific art and Modern One in Edinburgh celebrates Francis Bacon’s images of blood and guts in 1950s Soho
January 2019
From the Guardian archive
A morning at Brantwood, the home of John Ruskin - archive, 1900
Art Weekly newsletter
Ruskin blazes and the Queen unleashes the end of the world – the week in art
Culture highlights of the week
What to see this week in the UK
John Ruskin: The Power of Seeing review - oddball or visionary?
10 great European art anniversaries in 2019
Climate change ravages Turner’s majestic glaciers
August 2018
Ruskin the radical: why the Victorian thinker is back with a vengeance
He believed life should be beautiful, inequality was an outrage and that capitalism leads to aesthetic degradation. No wonder the quintessential Victorian speaks so powerfully to our times
March 2018
Book of the week
Writers and Their Mothers review – the legacy of maternal blessings
Made, marred, mollycoddled and inspired … Philip Larkin, Ian McEwan and Samuel Beckett are among the authors in this lively collection of affectionate and celebratory essays
December 2017
The digital hippies want to integrate life and work – but not in a good way
Evgeny Morozov
Data firms such as the rapidly expanding WeWork hope to blur the line between home and office. That won’t be any help to staff
October 2017
10 of the best railway stations in Britain
Simon Jenkins’ new book tells the history of Britain’s railways through the island’s 100 best stations. We pick 10 gems, from grand old York to a Highland outpost
July 2017
Britain’s best-loved artwork is a Banksy. That’s proof of our stupidity
Jonathan Jones
Banksy’s work is not real art, which should be complex and difficult, writes Guardian art critic Jonathan Jones
May 2017
From the Guardian archive
John Ruskin as artist – archive, 1904
11 May 1904: Ruskin’s skills as an artist were explored at a well attended lecture held at Manchester town hall
February 2017
Plant power: why greenery is more than just a fig leaf for urban development
From rooftop parks to garden bridges, developers have never been so green-fingered. Although landscape often comes as a decorative afterthought, putting plants first can guide the rest of the development for the better
June 2016
China Miéville: Beatrix Potter, Enid Blyton and the 'pictureskew'
Artists and authors have long celebrated the picturesque qualities of the English landscape, but there is a counter-tradition – particularly in children’s literature – that unearths the savage violence of nature
