Meet Princess Gloria of Thurn and Taxis, née Countess von Schönburg-Glauchau

Meet Princess Gloria of Thurn and Taxis, née Countess von Schönburg-Glauchau. A great many nineteenth-century novels began with this very plot: a girl from an impoverished noble family marries a wealthy man much older than herself... In 1980 the dutiful Catholic Gloria agreed to become the wife of a notorious playboy prince, a contemporary of her own father, and she did not come off badly: firstly, his 500-room palace was larger than Windsor, secondly, she was refused nothing, and thirdly, her own particular madness at last burst into bloom, which at once made her a star of German society. Gloria came to be called the TNT Princess and the Punk Princess, and, as you can see, not without reason. To her ageing husband she bore three children, and he, in gratitude, caught the infection of all her crazy ideas, dressed up in the wildest costumes, sponsored unimaginable gatherings and was at her side in every revelry. These days the princess has settled down and no longer resembles Zhanna Aguzarova; only the immoderate jewellery à la Edie Borgo gives away the imp in her

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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

Meet Princess Gloria of Thurn and Taxis, née Countess von Schönburg-Glauchau

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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