Notebooks

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

Sycophancy, like most political diseases, is not new. The ancient Egyptians developed it to a fine art and its aura persists to this day.

Space entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk are recapturing the bold and individualistic spirit of America's first astronauts, the Mercury Seven.

Unfairly maligned by critics, the third edition of the Matrix series is the true heir to cyberpunk and a tonic to the cold sheen of Holywood Sci-Fi.

Brocade paper is the seventeenth-century German invention which still has the power to dazzle.

Ancient criticisms of over-educated elitists can show us how to heal our divided democracies.

Overlooked in his own lifetime, Giles Gilbert Scott's architectural skill in uniting the past and the present make his buildings unforgettable.

Sophie Scholl paid the ultimate price for her defiance of Nazi evil. The actions of her and her compatriots are remembered to this day.

The histories of R.J. Unstead brought the past to life for millions of school children. His name and his story-telling talents deserve reviving.

Early twentieth-century poet Edna St Vincent Millay's laconic verse is an antidote to modern pop's cult of heartbreak.