Issue: December/January 2025
Clickbait criticism
A depressing, inarticulate complaint of a generation too paralysed even to make art
Booty contest
This book sets out to rebalance ahistorical narratives of how museum collections were constructed
Land of fire and blood
The detours, if at times distracting, are worth the price of this historical journey
The generation game
Ultimately pro-natalist in tone, this book approaches millennial worries about parenthood with curiosity and kindness
The joy of old English
Interest in language was once the domain of antiquarians and clergymen
Too many silences in this book about music
The hazy treatment of what “music” even entails falls flat
The blessings on our doorsteps
It is all too easy to forget the astonishing cultural wealth that lies close to hand in our medieval parish churches
Finding faith
Peterson spends great time and care examining a cornucopia of Biblical stories
Heroes, villains and lessons in life
Intellectual history, sneered at in Oxford 40 years ago, is all the rage there now
Libyans, Parisians and London Irish
Dry-ish, spare, clear-eyed — rare in a world of literary bloat, sentiment and overstatement
