Richard Luck
03 September 2025
Sérgio Mendes, the man who drove the new Brazilian sound to worldwide acclaim
For pretty much his entire life, Mendes was either in style or on the verge of being back in vogue, such is the world’s enduring love of Brazilian music
Read the full article27 August 2025
Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry and the studio that changed music for ever
From a backyard shack in Kingston, Perry reinvented the idea of the recording studio – before burning it to the ground
Read the full article13 August 2025
Aretha Franklin, the Lady of Mysterious Sorrows
Considering the battles that raged within her, perhaps the thing about the singer that commands most respect is not her genius, but her persistence
Read the full article06 August 2025
Nancy Wake, the White Mouse the Gestapo couldn’t corner
When Nazism came to her adopted home of France, the New Zealand journalist became a leading member of the resistance
Read the full article30 July 2025
Gore Vidal, the man who lived for verbal jousting
An unashamed member of the educated liberal elite, he parlayed his wit and access into a career of TV interviews and debates
Read the full article23 July 2025
Mary Wells: The Queen of Motown who renounced her throne
The singer left the most famous soul label in music history almost as quickly as she’d arrived
Read the full article16 July 2025
Lee Miller: The photographer who washed the dirt of Dachau off in Hitler’s own tub
She witnessed extreme horror. The photographs she took and the words she wrote both made and broke her
Read the full article09 July 2025
Dr Ruth Westheimer, the trained killer turned world’s most famous sex therapist
The German-American went from a sniper to an academic with a reputation for sexual frankness
Read the full article02 July 2025
Louis Armstrong, the man who spread jazz’s gospel around the world
Very few people have ever been famous the way Armstrong was. He released music almost every year from 1923 to 1970, selling four million records
Read the full article25 June 2025
Joey Dunlop, the ordinary man who did extraordinary things
It’s hard to convey just how big a deal Dunlop was to his fans, and to the people of his homeland. His modesty elevated the level of affection tenfold
Read the full article18 June 2025
Peter Falk, the TV cop a with a lifelong affinity with the underdog
Losing an eye at the age of just three, his misfortune bred in him a fearlessness and restlessness
Read the full article11 June 2025
Jorge Luis Borges, a doppelganger in Buenos Aires
The writer shared a deep, collaborative friendship with his kindred spirit Adolfo Bioy Casares, who became his literary double
Read the full article05 June 2025
Jack Johnson, the boxer who thrived as the world exploded around him
His life took him from the blood-stained cellars of Texas to a place in the sporting pantheon
Read the full article28 May 2025
Geneviève de Galard, the reluctant Angel of Dien Bien Phu
The modest aristocrat was perhaps aware that she wasn’t the only woman who went the extra mile in the jungles of Indochina
Read the full article21 May 2025
Robert Capa, the photographer who couldn’t resist the lure of the battlefield
The Japanese invasion of China, the D-day landings, the founding of Israel – no war was too small for Capa, no battlefield too bloody
Read the full article14 May 2025
Raoul Lufbery, the Frenchman who became America’s greatest aviator
Mocked for speaking English with a Clouseau-esque accent, Lufbery’s time in American fatigues saw him become a wartime legend
Read the full article07 May 2025
Eddie Barclay, the man who invented showbiz
A force of nature, Barclay was a boulevardier who made music and love with equal enthusiasm
Read the full article30 April 2025
Jerzy Kosiński, the writer whose last act was to plagiarise himself
However his works might have been assembled and whatever dissembling he did when talking about his life, Jerzy Kosiński was a master storyteller
Read the full article23 April 2025
Maria Schell, Hollywood’s grounded alien
A serious artist, the Austrian actress made the fatal mistake of failing to live up to something she had never been in the first place
Read the full article09 April 2025
Totò, the unlucky actor who took it on the chin
That he remained upbeat despite his many misfortunes was amazing. That he managed to make his home country laugh for over half a century borders on the miraculous
Read the full article02 April 2025
Karl and Bertha Benz, the couple who drove into history
In common with so many of the great pioneers, the inventor could add to his own gifts the blessing of a truly formidable spouse
Read the full article26 March 2025
Rob Pilatus, the new Elvis who signed a deal with the devil
He was one half of Milli Vanilli. So was he a failure, a fraud – or an extraordinary success?
Read the full article19 March 2025
Jules Verne, the writer who travelled in his imagination
The Frenchman always stressed that he was a writer of science fact, not science fiction
Read the full article12 March 2025
Capucine, the French cover girl turned Hollywood star
It was while the 22-year-old Germaine Lefebvre was walking down a Parisian street that her life was forever changed
Read the full article05 March 2025
Ken Adam, the fighter pilot who defined the look of Bond
Like Stanley Kubrick, his gift was to imagine and then realise the unimaginable, the unrealisable – places you could never go
Read the full article26 February 2025
Giuseppe Di Stefano, the tenor who captivated Callas
‘Pippo’ soared to fame alongside Maria Callas in the 1950s but his playboy lifestyle ultimately led to the loss of his golden voice
Read the full article12 February 2025
The Pirate who valued his authenticity above all else
At a time when cyclists had begun to resemble machines, Pantani was almost impossibly human, unable to conceal his emotions
Read the full article08 December 2024
How an Italian made America’s greatest gangster movie
The troubled birth and lasting genius of Sergio Leone’s Once Upon A Time in America
Read the full article04 December 2024
Killing time on the Costa del Crime
How Stephen Frears’ The Hit – the first movie based on British gangsters exiled in Spain – finally lived up to its name
Read the full article08 July 2024
Fifty years of The Night Porter
Liliana Cavani's pitch-black tale of a Nazi and a camp survivor bound together enraged almost everybody on its original release. Half a century on, has the tide turned?
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31 January 2024
The curse of Clouseau
Sixty years on, are the Pink Panther films still funny?
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