Notebooks

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

An engraving of Ancient Egyptians hunting birds.
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The ancient Egyptians and birds — history of a fascination

For the ancient Egyptians, among the many thousands of species available for scrutiny, none were so present or as closely watched as birds.

Maria Golia December 3, 2021
Jiang Qing, known as Madame Mao in Western literature, enjoyed a position of indirect power as Chairman Mao's wife. She played a major role in the Cultural Revolution.
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Women in modern China — the odds are heaped against Peng Shuai

The role for women in Chinese politics has not moved on greatly from the Mao era. They are actors not in their own right, but only by association with men.

Kerry Brown December 3, 2021
Wilhelm Furtwangler Conducting, 1940. Credit: Bettmann via Getty
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Remembering Wilhelm Furtwängler

The conductor was a radical whose approach to music was singular and unorthodox, bequeathing audiences with a scintillating treasure trove of unique concerts and recordings that do..

Harry Cluff November 30, 2021
An eighteenth century etching of a group of young men enjoying a game of Pallone col Bracciale.
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Real Tennis and the elemental thrill of ball games

All the joy has gone out of modern Tennis, which privileges power and mathematical strategic thinking. It's time to rediscover what makes ball games so much fun - comedy, lightness..

Alastair Benn November 26, 2021
Advert for several varieties of wine
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The quest for Vino and Veritas

The journey into wine is almost like a pilgrimage, with many new encounters and friends along the way.

Agnès Poirier November 24, 2021
Leonardo Da Vinci's The Creation of Adam, circa 1511. Credit: Wikipedia Commons
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The limits of human perfectibility and progress

Warnings against optimistic overreaching run deep in many traditions, but humans nevertheless keep finding excuses to cast caution to the winds. But the true value of progress and ..

Erica Benner November 19, 2021
A self-portrait of Frans Hals painted around 1650. Credit: Sepia Times via Getty
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Frans Hals had personality

The Dutch Golden Age painter pioneered the rough and loose brushstrokes that brilliantly infuse his subjects with life – but the facts about his life remain sparse even today.

John Phipps November 17, 2021
A Roman fresco from the Osteria della Via di Mercurio in Pompeii depicting a group of men having fun playing dice.
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What the Romans did for fun

Blame the pandemic; blame social media, but as winter rolls around again it can feel as if we've forgotten how truly to celebrate. But antiquity offers us the key to re-learning ho..

Daisy Dunn November 12, 2021
A nineteenth-century engraving of Trabzon, formerly known as Trebizond.
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Dreaming of Trebizond

The little-known empire of Trebizond was finally swept away by the rise of the Ottomans in the fifteenth century. But up in the monasteries of the Matzouka the dream of Byzantium r..

Edward Thicknesse November 12, 2021

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