Notebooks

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Good poetry in a crisis

Seamus Heaney’s poems are a valuable, moving register of individual intimacy and national pain.

Francesca Peacock October 9, 2020

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On the art of metallurgy

Georgius Agricola's De Re Metallica gives us a fascinating insight into the late medieval view of metal and its uses.

Philip Marsden October 5, 2020

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The enduring spirit of cricket

Cricket was one of the few sports that was played near-normally this summer - its modern form is a welcome emblem of global connection.

Alastair Benn October 1, 2020

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These four colourful walls

The Camden Town Group capture both the claustrophobia and possibilities of domestic life.

Francesca Peacock September 29, 2020

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The demon of the house

The pandemic has forced us all to live more wholesome lives, but some danger still exists between the pages of the novel.

Jenny McCartney September 25, 2020

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Waugh’s war

Evelyn Waugh's humour is sparkling and amusing, but with its anti-authority jibes and social commentary it is more than just a light laugh.

Bruce Anderson September 15, 2020

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Essaying a genre

The classical essay - with all its ease, polished prose, and trivial subjects - is a medium we would do well to re-capture.

Gerald Warner September 3, 2020

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That was once upon a time in Iraq

In the BBC's documentary Once Upon a Time in Iraq, we are invited to not avert our eyes from the long catastrophe of Iraq and to leave grand judgments about the rights and wrongs o..

Alastair Benn July 30, 2020

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Milton vs the echo chamber

Thought centuries apart, John Milton and George Orwell offer complementary arguments for free speech and a free society.

Francesca Peacock July 20, 2020