Eurofile

The standard form of English used in the media contains a number of grammatical oddities not found in other dialects of the language

Carl Orff’s choral masterwork Carmina Burana was feted by the Nazis. But was he a willing collaborator or a canny survivor?

Like hummus and olives, two other central components of a train picnic in modern Britain, chorizo is almost as much of a cultural touchpoint as a sausage roll

The UK used to be the obvious point of entry for art and antiquities coming into Europe. But then we ostracised ourselves

Too many books about the countryside are over-written and nostalgic. But Rebecca Smith’s brilliant new memoir gets it just right

When the Soviet cosmonaut made her pioneering flight 60 years ago, she was supposed to usher in an era of Soviet “Gagarins in skirts”. What happened?

Even when it comes to humankind’s favourite pastime - world domination - we can’t claim any clear victory over ants

We want technology to be developed in a logical fashion because we want to believe we, ourselves, are logical problem-solvers rather than mere tinkerers

Divided by a continent and a generation, they never met. But a new exhibition shows the ties between Leon Kossoff and Chaïm Soutine

Cleo Watson’s debut novel, Whips, is the latest in a long line of raunchy romps set in the world’s least erotic place – Westminster

Communities can switch language – like the Irish who gradually gave up Gaelic for English – but they retain parts of the old one, too

The overriding atmosphere of Loti’s output is one of a lost innocence, a yearning nostalgia for a world before the corrupting influence of Europe

We have to some degree lost our way with burgers. But not always

Last month, the city of Marseille lit up to celebrate 30 years since its club’s European Cup win – a victory overshadowed by disgrace

Manchester City have been a constant parade of sensational footballers over the last few years, but none arrived in the same way the Norwegian striker did

The simultaneous elevation of the chip into gastronomy, and its demotion, via pulverising and reconstitution into the soggy cardboard substratum of contemporary British poverty, marks its nadir

So significant was her contribution to Italian film that it led to the addition of a word to the Italian dictionary: borellismo

The journalist Simon Jenkins claims the Celtic tribe and language did not exist. He is wrong – as Julius Caesar could have told him...

This is a fancy and complex plate of food because Hall-McCarron’s delicate and careful combinations of flavour are majestic, but with time and energy it can be replicated at home

New series A Small Light explores Miep Gies’s acts of humanity – and it prompted a look at my own family history

There was much to enjoy at Cannes – but the same old players doing the same old things hints that cinema may be due a shake-up

Pirelli’s vast Milan gallery is a temple of daring contemporary art

An Aspects of Love revival feels uncomfortable three decades on

The stage version of Brokeback Mountain is well-meaning, well-acted and well, pointless

Did the Third Reich really have teams of archaeologists dedicated to finding sacred relics in the name of Aryan mastery? The answer, unbelievably, is yes.

After a decade of striving for success, David Bowie finally had it all. And then he seemed to throw it all away by killing off “my monster”

As Portugal sailed the world’s seas in the 15th and 16th centuries, its language spread globally – nowhere further than Macao

This is a dessert worth queuing for. It’s a bit different and absolutely worth trying

The contest looks plausibly like an alternative governmental structure for our fissiparous yet self-loving continent

Wherever she went, the breakout role which made her name always seemed to be at her shoulder

An exile’s redemptive return to track four generations of family history in the “backyard of a country that still thinks it’s an empire”

Martin Scorsese, Steve McQueen and the late Martin Amis deliver the goods at an unexpectedly soggy Cannes Film Festival