The late Sicilian novelist Leonardo Sciascia was an expert chronicler of Italy's moral anguish, and both an artist and politician

Neither great, nor original - Barbara Cartland, still the queen of romantic fiction

Gilbert Kaplan is a businessman with little musical training who has learnt to conduct Mahler's 2nd symphony. Last year he was in St Petersburg, next month it's Moscow

Duncan Fallowell describes how he came to write a libretto for a rock opera of Gormenghast by the German band Can

Cioran is a Romanian genius, a philosopher who can turn extreme anguish into supreme elegance. But, as Duncan Fallowell finds out, no one seems to care

Venice was once a city of velvet and marble-now it is tense with clingfilm, the most useless city in Italy. Duncan Fallowell has never been to Venice and thinks Oslo might be more inspiring