Michael White’s classical news: Proms – Anna Lapwood, National Youth Orchestra, The Observatory, Before the Fall; Hugo Hymas

‘I’m not popular in Japan, so I’m surprised to be in a bookshop in London’

Twain spotting: ’The Lincoln of our literature’ in London

‘It takes a particular skill to be in the middle of a riot and take a good picture’

Review: Echo, at King’s Head Theatre

Review: Inter Alia, at Lyttleton, National Theatre

Zero: extraordinary thriller pushes you to the edge of your seat

Still lives: the rapid rise of female statues in London

Michael White’s classical news: Proms; Jane Eyre; Alastair Macgeorge

Pomp it up: How ‘Britannia’s butler’ epitomised English aristocratic grandeur at the height of the Empire

‘Their relationship was a marriage between the literary and art world’

Stevie Wonder is flawless at unforgettable Hyde Park show

40 Acres: Cannibalism in Canada gives food for thought

Review: That Bastard Puccini!, at Park 200

Review: The Estate, at Dorfman, National Theatre

Grooves: BST; Bronski Beat; Yoyoka; Scottish Fish; Fab Femme

Sumner loving: how Sting helped support a bandoneon master

Michael White’s classical news: Christian Blackshaw; Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha; Freddie de Tommaso; Proms

Take your seats, the curtain’s going up!

‘Let’s face it, it was an inner-city hole and you had to watch your back’