Battersea Saved. Politicians Have Change Of Heart

It looks like a solution has been found to save South London’s Battersea Arts Center, one of London’s most important centers for emerging artists. “So how has this change of heart on the part of the politicians come about? The answer is a great deal of hard behind-the-scenes negotiation, a grown-up refusal to bad mouth, and a recognition that there were points where the interests of BAC and the council were aligned.”

Canada’s National Ballet In A Family Way

Four National Ballet of Canada dancers are pregnant and due this summer. “In the past, perhaps one dancer might be pregnant in a season, not four. This has meant a full-scale rearrangement of roles for the rest of the season and the beginning of the next, while also putting pressure on other dancers in the Toronto-based company to rise to the occasion to fill the roles.”

Missing Passage Sparks Literary Row

“Irene Nemirovsky’s Suite Francaise caused a sensation when published in English last year. Now the charge that she was anti-Semitic – despite being Jewish herself – threatens her reputation.The claims made in that passage have fuelled a trans-Atlantic row about whether the writer was indeed an anti-Semitic Jew who cosied up to some of the most unpleasant anti-Semites in 1930s France.”