Notebooks

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

The Italian composer Luciano Berio in 1995.
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Berio’s labyrinth of sound

The 'Godfather of Italian composition', as Luciano Berio was known, remains our greatest explorer of instrumental timbre and melody.

Ian Thomson October 23, 2025
Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton as Cleopatra and Mark Antony in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's 1963 Hollywood epic.
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Hollywood’s classical obsession

Beneath Hollywood portrayals of the classical world lies a desire to use antiquity to express ideas about America.

Katy Holland October 22, 2025
Bolivia's new president Rodrigo Paz at a campaign rally ahead of the runoff election in El Alto, Bolivia on 30 September, 2025. (Credit: Juan Karita/ Alamy)
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Bolivia’s age of experiments

Incoming centre-right leader, Rodrigo Paz, has sold his pro-business package to the Bolivian population. But a toxic combination of regional antagonisms and structural weakness cou..

John Crabtree October 22, 2025
The President of Argentina takes to the stage.
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Javier Milei, a very Argentinian president

Eccentric as Milei's alter-ego choices may be, they contain a certain logic, especially for those acquainted with Argentinian letters.

Andreas Campomar October 21, 2025
Polish children deported to Germany by the Nazis.
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The Nazi conquest of childhood

The fate of Eastern European children stolen by the Nazis highlights the difficulties involved with repatriating those abducted during wartime.

Caitlin Allen October 17, 2025
The Two Are But One (Les deux ne font qu'un),
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Marie Antoinette’s image problem

From vicious rumours to lurid portrayals of her sexual mores, the queen was a victim of 18th-century France's scurrilous press long before she was sent to the guillotine.

Saffron Swire October 16, 2025
Willa Cather (1873-1947)
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Willa Cather’s prescriptions for modern life

A hundred years on from the publication of her masterpiece, 'The Professor's House', Cather's criticisms of modernity carry a new urgency.

Charlotte Stroud October 15, 2025
M23 rebels patrol the streets of Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Wednesday, 29 January, 2025.
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Trump’s Congo deal could be in trouble

Caught amid complex political rivalries and bitter regional disputes, a US-brokered peace between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda is unlikely to challenge China's p..

Mpiti Mosothoane October 15, 2025
A Syrian election official shows a ballot paper during the counting of ballots in Latakia, Syria, on Sunday, 5 October, 2025.
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Syria needs a strong parliament

Despite threats and intimidation, Syria’s parliamentary elections were a successful and vital first step in the country’s transition to democracy.

James Snell October 14, 2025

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