The savage “exemplary” sentences handed out to young Muslims (Sent to jail for throwing a single bottle, 13 March) need to be viewed in the broader context of the “war on terror”, which itself has turned out to be a euphemism for a more shadowy war on Islam. While the …

One of my earliest memories involves a soldier’s kitbag. I can’t remember whose it was. I can only remember what was in it. The war in the Pacific had just ended, and every day saw soldiers coming home, their baggage stuffed with what Australians call momentoes. Out of the kitbag …

My parents Jeffery and Miquette Roberts, who have both died aged 66, within 10 days of each other, shared passions for the arts and languages, and had broad-ranging, inquiring minds. In April 2009, Jeffery was diagnosed with cancer. He faced this with amazing fortitude, and the unending support of Miquette, …

Actor and dancer abandoned by her father, Diego Rivera
The actor and dancer Marika Rivera, who has died aged 90, shared with her father, the muralist Diego Rivera, an imposing physique and determined character. However, it was to her mother, Marie Vorobieff Stebelska – better known as Marevna and generally regarded …

Baltic, Gateshead
You ride the lift up the high glass tower of Baltic to the viewing box at the top. The work of art scrolls out in long lines of glowing letters across the entire floor of the gallery below. The lights are gold, the darkness is soothing, the words are …

The V&A exhibition on medieval sacred art set me thinking about what my own idea of hell is
The V&A has, at the moment, a quite captivating show on medieval sacred art. I know, I know, I had thought the likelihood of my writing that sentence was up there with the …

Before he became Britain’s most controversial film director, Russell forged a career as a photographer, capturing the great eccentrics of his youth for posterity
Before he became Britain’s most controversial film director with Women In Love in 1969, and long before he gained a burst of brief late notoriety by joining …

Legend says the greatest Victorian was put off sex by the sight of his wife’s naked body. A new film will try to establish the truth
The secret at the heart of the short-lived, notoriously unconsummated marriage of John Ruskin, the great artist, architect, poet and political thinker of the Victorian …

Before he became Britain’s most controversial film director, Ken Russell forged a career as a photographer, capturing the great eccentrics of his youth for posterity. His work features in two forthcoming exhibitions: at Lucy Bell Fine Art, St Leonards-on-Sea (17 Mar-30 Apr) Lucy-Bell.com, then at the Topfoto Gallery, Edenbridge, Kent …

Robbie Cooper, Bradford
Robbie Cooper hides video and still-photo cameras in TV and computer screens to watch the watchers. There’s the flush and blush of the porno-viewer, the zombie stare of the horror fan, the enchanted wow of children’s TV toddlers, the incredulous recoil of the unwilling witnesses of disastrous news. …