Category: people

“Absolutely, she planned for it. She redid her will earlier in the spring when her blood counts were going the wrong way, typed an exit letter on her computer, spelling out what she wanted after she died: a party in the apartment with Champagne and cucumber sandwiches from William Poll; a memorial held days after. ‘Get it over with’ was the gist of her instructions. She even supplied the speaker list.”

“The more you learn about Chekhov, as you read biographies, memoirs, the letters – the more clear it becomes that he led a love-life of astonishing activity and complexity. Chekhov, it turns out, had a great many affairs, some enduring several years, and most of the women involved with him for any length of time wanted to marry him.”

“Thirty-six years after his death and twenty-two years after the fall of the Soviet Union with all its khudsovets, Vladimir Nabokov is, once again, controversial.”

Amy Licence: “The true story of the unfortunate boys’ murder(s) when they were aged twelve and nine will probably never be known. However, while undertaking research for my biography of Richard III’s wife, I discovered information that could imply their uncle’s guilt.”

The breakout star of the 2012 Republican National Convention “was one of more than 80 Republicans who signed the [pro-marriage equality] ‘friend of the court’ brief” to the US Supreme Court in the case over California’s Proposition 8.

Peter Bazalgette “is a dapper 59 year-old, whose trim frame gives the lie to his second favourite recreation, according to Who’s Who, of gluttony. His first is opera.”

“I was the kid that grew up watching Bette Davis films. When I was 10 years old I went through a patch, maybe three months, where my mom couldn’t get me to bed unless I watched all of All About Eve every night. And I sat there and I tried to recite all of Margo Channing’s lines.”

“‘It’s now regarded as the best biography of Dostoevsky in any language, including Russian, which is really saying something,’ Gary Saul Morson, a Dostoevsky scholar and professor of Slavic languages and literature at Northwestern University, said in a telephone interview, referring to the five-volume work. ‘That’s more or less universal. And this is my opinion, I don’t know if others will agree, but it’s the best biography of any writer I’ve ever read.'”

“How much responsibility does the BBC have to the arts? ‘I think the BBC’s role in bringing to people’s attention the great things being done by arts organisations across the country and artists is phenomenally important,’ he says. ‘Do I think the BBC should take the arts seriously? Of course. But I am not there yet and I am not commenting on that stuff.'”