Notebooks

Notebooks are snapshots from our writers, reflecting on current affairs and underappreciated aspects of culture and history.

'Mother Julian', illustrated by Stephen Reid.
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Solitude standing

From medieval anchoresses to poets, singers, and writers throughout the ages, seclusion is often seen as a particularly female act. But a closer look reveals a more nuanced history..

Francesca Peacock November 6, 2021
Portrait of Charles Baudelaire taken in 1862 by Etienne Carjat
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Baudelaire grappling with God

Baudelaire's poetry, both verse and prose, is at once an attempt to look the Creator in the eye as an equal, and also a means of throwing himself at His feet.

Marie Daouda November 5, 2021
'A Maid Asleep' by Johannes Vermeer 1657. Domestic servants often tended to chores between sleeps. Credit: Museum of Metropolitan Art via Wikipedia Commons
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Silent night: how we used to sleep

Lying awake in the dead of night is anathema to modern sensibilities – and an insomniac’s worst fear. But our pre-industrial ancestors understood (and experienced) night-time in ri..

Eve Webster November 3, 2021
A Japanese map of the world dating from 1850. Here the Indo-Pacific region sits in the centre. Credit: Buyenlarge via Getty Images
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The Indo-Pacific is an idea whose time has come

In the twenty-first century globalised and cyber-connected world, the economic engine is the centre, and that centre is the Indo-Pacific.

Tim Marshall October 29, 2021
Engraving depicting Leonardo da Vinci's Archimedean screw helicopter. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was an Italian polymath, artist and inventor. Dated 15th Century.
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Italy: Mother of all invention

The country loves to laud its inventors, veracity aside. History, after all, isn’t the past, it’s what we say the past was.

Tobias Jones October 28, 2021
The main pool in the Art-Deco style Mounts Baths in Northampton, England. Mount Baths opened in 1936 and is believed to be the only Art Deco swimming pool in the UK.
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The beauty of municipal swimming pools

The everyday municipal pool does not feature much in the canon of great swimming pools. But it has its charms.

Fay Schopen October 26, 2021
Letizia Bonaparte in The Coronation of Napoleon by Jacques-Louis David.
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On mothers and politicians

Letizia Bonaparte, Napoleon’s so-called Madame Mère, loomed large in the emperor’s life instilling in him the tenacity and force of will which led him to conquer much of Europe.

Agnès Poirier October 22, 2021
A desert highway between Las Vegas and Palm Springs.
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The perils of the quest for immortality

Modern magnates such as Jeff Bezos and Peter Thiel should heed the warnings of the Ancients in their quest for immortality.

Armand D'Angour October 15, 2021
Albrecht Durer's The Feast of the Rosary, 1506. National Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic
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Dürer in Venice

Albrecht Dürer felt that he had to prove his ability as a painter to Italian audiences. His time in Venice left an indelible imprint on Italy's culture and on the great artist's le..

Daisy Dunn October 12, 2021

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