The helmet with Henry VIII's deranged expression that I saw recently in the Louvre has always reminded me of the mask worn by the dreadfully dangerous criminal Albert van den Bosch in the film "Taxi 4"

But in fact this helmet, which I wrote about briefly in my book, is the sole surviving piece of the armour presented by the Emperor Maximilian I as a diplomatic gift to the English king Henry VIII in 1514. I trust no one will dispute that the old man would hardly have suited that grimace

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At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free

At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free. So, here is the

Frederic Leighton

Frederic Leighton. “Daedalus and Icarus”, 1869 Daedalus warns his son not to climb too high: the heat of the sun may melt the wax, but Icarus is already gazing into the distance, and the lamentations of a foolish old man interest him not in the least

The helmet with Henry VIII's deranged expression that I saw recently in the Louvre has always reminded me of the mask worn by the dreadfully dangerous criminal Albert van den Bosch in the film "Taxi 4"

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At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free

Frederic Leighton

Attempts to resolve the problems of many years of uncontrolled mass migration

Characters from Gogol's "Petersburg Tales" on the pedestal of the monument to Nikolai Gogol on Nikitsky Boulevard, photograph of the 1960s