sat 19/04/2025

Film Features

Remembering Patrick Swayze

Sheila Johnston

As graceful in his approach to death as he was in life, Patrick Swayze died yesterday at the age of 57. I met the actor in 1995 at a turning point in his career, just as the sexy lustre of Dirty Dancing and Ghost was beginning to wear thin.

Read more...

Close Up on Hunter S Thompson

Sheila Johnston

Hunter S Thompson always had one beady, sun-bespectacled eye on posterity. At 21, living in poverty in a remote cabin in the Catskills and toiling away at an autobiographical first novel, Prince Jellyfish (still unpublished), he would immodestly compare his own progress to that of F Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, two other writers who came late to public recognition.

Read more...

Pages

latest in today

Help to give theartsdesk a future!

It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.

It followed some...

MacMillan St John Passion, Boylan, National Symphony Orchest...

Never make your mind up too soon about any large-scale work by a genius. Back in 2010, I had my doubts about James MacMillan’s first Passion,...

Neil Young: Coastal review - the old campaigner gets back on...

As well as generating a ceaseless stream of albums, whether live, studio or culled from his copious archives, Neil Young has also amassed a fairly...

First Person: St John's College choral conductor Christ...

When I arrived at St John’s College, Cambridge, in April 2023, it was a daunting prospect to be taking over the reins of a choir with such a...

Album: Maria Somerville - Luster

Luster’s fifth track “Halo” has the lyric “mystical creatures… of Éirne,” referencing the Irish river and lough of the same name – both...

The Penguin Lessons review - Steve Coogan and his flippered...

As if penguins didn’t have enough to fret about with impending tariffs on exporting guano to America, here comes Steve Coogan to ruffle their...

Ghosts, Lyric Hammersmith Theatre - turns out, they do fuck...

A single sofa is all we have on stage to attract our eye - the signifier of intimate family evenings, chummy breakfast TV and,...

Blue Road: The Edna O'Brien Story - compelling portrait...

“I was born with the ability and the demon to write. I have been punished for it constantly.” Written and directed by Sinéad O’Shea, this...

Album: Ronny Graupe's Szelest - Newfoundland Tristesse

In this new album, three top-flight musicians based in Berlin, guitarist Ronny Graupe, Lucia Cadotsch (voice) and Kit Downes (piano) work...