Alice Spawls

Frieze Masters​, the more subdued sister of the contemporary art fair, is a reliably rewarding outing for fans of medieval manuscripts, Renaissance armour, Bronze Age spearheads and ancient Egyptian cat statuettes. One expects to see marble busts and antique maps, but perhaps not an old friend. This year, the stand allotted to the Weiss Gallery in Mayfair had as its centrepiece a painting...

In October​ 2012, Pallant House Gallery in Chichester put on an exhibition of works by the painters Gwen John and Celia Paul. What now seems obvious was then inspired. The comparison diminished neither. Two artists, distinct but in obvious affinity, spoke across their different periods and each made the other more necessary, more triumphant. It was as though Cézanne and Van Gogh had...

Junior doctors​, who make up half the medical workforce in England, went on strike for 72 hours this week in protest at their low pay, long hours and dismal working conditions. One told me that her father earned more as a junior doctor in London thirty years ago: not just more in today’s money – more in the bank each month. Expectations for change are low. Not only are there...

John Gibson​ was born in 1827 in rural Ireland. He went to sea at the age of twelve – the family were poor – but at 34 settled as a grocer in St Mary’s, the largest of the Scilly Isles. His business grew, and in 1870 he opened a photographic portrait studio attached to the shop. He had taken a course in Plymouth and was now equipped to shoot the people of the isles. His son...

In​ no particular order: the first significant piece of crime legislation since 1986 was introduced to Parliament on 9 March. Among other things, it restores the offence of ‘intentionally or recklessly causing public nuisance’. During a Black Lives Matter demonstration in London last summer, mounted police charged at protesters, who threw small missiles and larger objects at the...