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Geoffrey Wheatcroft

Geoffrey Wheatcroft is the author of The Controversy of Zion, The Strange Death of Tory England, and Yo, Blair!
 (April 2013)

  • Downing Street Liars' Club

    June 22, 2012

    One of the best traditions of English public life is the official inquiry, sometimes parliamentary, sometimes judicial. What gives inquiries their value isn’t the conclusions they come to, which can be perverse or distorted by partisanship, but the evidence they hear and place on record. And so with the Leveson inquiry into the press. Whatever recommendations Lord Justice Leveson eventually makes, we have been spellbound by the testimony he has heard. To add a certain amusement value, the last few weeks have been notable for utterly contradictory testimony from different witnesses, several of them present or former leaders of the country. Someone is being economical with the truth, or just lying.

  • The Truth About Murdoch

    March 14, 2012

    Along with the other media he has mastered, from tabloids to satellite television, Rupert Murdoch has recently taken to Twitter. On February 15, he tweeted, “To hell with politicians! When are we going to find some to tell the truth in any country? Don’t hold your breath.” His words remind us yet again that Murdoch is a man of iron nerve, not say brass neck, though they might also suggest a degree of delusion. Throughout his career, every time he has come near calamity, that gambler’s strong nerve has always somehow managed to rescue him. But the concatenation of scandal and disaster that has now engulfed his News International group—which owns the Sun and the now-defunct News of the World as well as the London Times and other papers—is of a different order.

  • Letting Murdoch in Through the Back Door

    July 22, 2011

    The real story is not Murdoch’s papers and the repulsive methods used by their reporters: it’s the force and blatancy of Murdoch’s political influence through those papers. Although responsibility for the appalling conduct of his papers ultimately rests with Murdoch, the blame for the way he has exercised so much indirect political power lies with those politicians who have for so long knelt before him. Cameron is the latest, and may yet prove the greatest casualty. But it must be said that not even Cameron was as cynical and unprincipled in his dealings with Murdoch as Tony Blair had been.

  • Tiepolo in Udine

    March 8, 2013 – April 7, 2013

    Two shows of the paintings of Giambattista Tiepolo have been staged at Udine. Together they encourage a visitor to explore all the other work by the painter strewn around Udine, which may well be the least frequented Italian city with such riches.

  • Bronze

    September 15, 2012 – December 9, 2012

    When we admire the beauty and intricacy of bronze sculptures in great museums we may not think much about the medium itself, but we can think harder at the astonishing exhibition called simply “Bronze.”

  • Paul Lewis Plays Schubert

    October 20, 2012, 7:30 pm

    We live in an age of great Schubertians, few more remarkable than Paul Lewis. Touring internationally, at venues famous and obscure, he has worked his way through the Schubert canon, and has now reached the three great last sonatas.

  • Bernard Haitink and the Vienna Philharmonic at the Proms

    September 6, 2012, 2 pm

    The most eagerly awaited performance of this year's BBC Proms is undoubtedly Bernard Haitink conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony, preceded by Murray Perahia playing Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto.

  • Ravel Double Bill

    August 19, 2012 – August 26, 2012

    Maurice Ravel wrote only two operas, entirely different but both perfect one-act miniatures, now on display in a new double-bill at Glyndebourne.

  • Le nozze di Figaro

    August 17, 2012 – August 24, 2012

    No opera means more to Glyndebourne than Le nozze di Figaro, conducted this summer by Robin Ticciati.