Books
Paradise dimmed
John Milton’s Paradise Lost is the greatest poem in the English language, yet it seems to be fading slowly from public view. Who could write a new national epic?
An island to admire
A new book takes a valuable tour of the Isle of Man
Playing it by the book
Are books as physical objects already obsolescent?
Feminism’s dangerous false utopia
The modern battle for women’s rights has now fallen prey to a self-defeating brand of power politics
Not going to be ignored (w/ Victoria Smith)
On the demonisation of middle-aged women
Keep physical books
We have to protect cultural history
The new establishment
Who will subvert today’s anti-establishment?
Read for pleasure
Against the functionalist approach to literature
The truth about book reviewing
What does it mean to be critical?
Publishing needs JK Rowling to be a monster
The facts are irrelevant
He’s not the messiah, he’s a transwoman
Transsexual Apostate is a disturbing book, written for disturbing times
Water matters
British towns were built on rivers in more than one sense
Off with the fairies
Unsurprisingly, the most brilliant of all English music-theatre pieces are mostly overlooked
The ongoing reality of Russian imperialism
People rationalising Russian military intervention are betraying their ignorance of Russian history
This England
We should celebrate the glorious wartime cinematic masterpiece that Churchill wanted to ban
Turning a blind eye to a tilted playing field
Not only is it a page-turner, it’s also an essential manual for defending women’s sport
What became of Tchaikovsky?
Tchaikovsky: 5th symphony etc (ICA Classics)
A passage to Istria
Long nights and grey days turn our correspondent’s mind to the Croatian coast
Pen pusher
My fascination with fountain pens
The hidden cost of pronoun politeness
Using untruthful pronouns is not the same as complimenting a bad haircut
Three novelists pushing the bloat out
Some novels still dare to leave the reader’s hand unheld — without universal success
