New book says many pieces in Barry Joule Archive bear ‘scant resemblance’ to artist’s work, but donor insists they are realThe Estate of Francis Bacon has launched an astonishing personal attack on Barry Joule, one of the artist’s friends, and the vast…
Violinist Nigel Kennedy cancels concert after Classic FM stops Hendrix tribute
Performer pulls Royal Albert Hall gig over decision he compared to musical segregationViolinist Nigel Kennedy has pulled out of a concert at the Royal Albert Hall with only days to go after accusing the radio station Classic FM of preventing him from p…
Father to 15 children … but were any of blues star BB King’s offspring his?
A new biography says paternity would have been impossible for the musician because he was sterile due to illness and an accidentBB King was born into poverty in Jim Crow Mississippi and raised on a cotton plantation before becoming a street busker then…
‘Unreal’: Samaritans volunteer has life turned around by six-figure book deal
James Norbury’s self-published Big Panda and Tiny Dragon inspired by the lives of callers to helplineA man living below the poverty line, helping others as a volunteer with the Samaritans, who self-published a book after literary agents showed no inter…
‘I was on a list to be terminated’ – Sue Dobson, the spy who helped to end apartheid
She risked arrest, torture and jail to fight racism in 1980s South Africa, and her story is being made into a filmAs a white South African, Sue Dobson risked arrest, torture and imprisonment spying for the black nationalist cause during the latter days…
Tate donor warns: ‘I’ll take back my £20m Francis Bacon collection’
Barry Joule, a close friend of the artist, says the gallery has not kept to a pledge to stage exhibitions of the worksWhen more than 1,200 sketches, photographs and documents from the studio of Francis Bacon were donated to the Tate in 2004, it was des…
Fruit baskets from fourth century BC found in ruins of Thonis-Heracleion
‘Incredible’ discoveries at submerged ancient city off coast of Egypt have lain untouchedWicker baskets filled with fruit that have survived from the 4th century BC and hundreds of ancient ceramic artefacts and bronze treasures have been discovered in …