Barry Humphries has died at the age of 89. This was his last diary for The Spectator in our 2022 Christmas issue. F.Scott Fitzgerald declared in an excellent late story that ‘the second half of life is a long process of getting rid of things’. It is certainly what I am striving to do. I
Our music tonight includes a suite from Max Steiner's lush soundtrack for the classic film Now, Voyager, and portraits of some of Hollywood's legendary actors in Charles Koechlin's Seven Stars Symphony. Tune in at 8 p.m. on 91.1 and 107.5 FM and our music stream.
From live Tippett, locked-down Debussy and luminous Charles Koechlin to dazzling Szymanowski and dextrous Beethoven, we pick the outstanding releases of the past 12 months