Notebooks

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

The Carte de Tendre by Mademoiselle de Scudéry.
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Reading the map of love

A relic of the salons of 17th-century France, Mademoiselle de Scudéry's Carte de Tendre tells a universal story about the tensions between desire and civilised behaviour.

Muriel Zagha March 24, 2025
Vintage colour etching of the Statue of Liberty.
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The Statue of Liberty’s Egyptian origins

The inspiration for the Statue of Liberty comes from Egypt, not France. And if its artist had had his way, she would be greeting ships in Port Said on the Mediterranean at the entr..

Maria Golia March 21, 2025
Samuel Palmer's The Curfew, 1870.
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England’s mystical inheritance

Two intensely scholarly men with roots in England's 'Middle Earth', J.R.R. Tolkien and Enoch Powell, crafted mystical visions of nationhood, rooted in the past.

Eliot Wilson March 19, 2025
A scene from Bizet's 'Carmen' illustrated in a 19th-century advertisement.
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The maverick genius of Georges Bizet

The longevity of Bizet's Carmen, despite its disastrous premiere, is a testament to the composer's genius and creativity. With every performance, we still recognise its immortal re..

Nicholas Opfermann March 17, 2025
Crowds wave the flag of the Syrian Revolution in Aleppo to celebrate the overthrown of the Assad regime.
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Syria’s sectarian trap

Syria’s social fabric is in shreds, and forces embodying some of the country's most extreme sectarian tendencies are ascendant on all sides.

Kyle Orton March 17, 2025
A sign welcomes visitors outside the Bic Factory in Montsévrain, France
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The pen that became a symbol of France

Since it was first released in 1970, the revolutionary Bic 4-Colour ballpoint pen has come to embody a powerful ‘myth’ of French modernity.

Muriel Zagha March 14, 2025
South Korean President Syngman Rhee and General Douglas MacArthur in 1948.
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What Zelensky can learn from Syngman Rhee

The parallels between the current conflict in Ukraine and the Korean War won’t validate President Trump's approach or please his supporters. They suggest that Kyiv still has one cr..

David P. Fields March 13, 2025
A 19th-century French caricature of the Congress of Vienna (1815).
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Bringing back the stately quadrille

President Trump has upended relations with America's European allies. It's a dramatic change of course reminiscent of the dizzying dance of 18th-century diplomacy.

William Erich Ellison March 12, 2025
A fresco depicting the First Council of Nicaea from the Sistine hall of the Vatican Library.
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Nicaea: the council that shaped the West

The fourth-century Council of Nicaea shaped the direction of Christian theology, kickstarted the contest between Church and State, and established the political model that lies at ..

Fergus Butler-Gallie March 12, 2025

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