What do magpies want?
I am left feeling unnerved by the sudden presence of a bird wreathed in superstition and legend at my kitchen window.
By
Christmas special
George Orwell and the road to revolution
Orwell wrote Animal Farm at a time of global crisis as a warning about oppressive state power. Its message…
By
Lessons in rage at Disneyland Paris
When I was ten, Snow White got into a fight with my mother and hit her. We were at…
By
What science can learn from religion
The New Atheists hardened the idea that the two world-views are locked in opposition – but a new breed of scientists…
By
Journal of a plague year
The New Statesman’s medical columnist describes his experiences as a GP in the face of Covid-19, as a rumour…
By
Ralph Steadman’s guided tour through six decades of irrepressible art
The British illustrator’s provocative, ink-splattered images – some of which, taken from a major new book, are published here –…
By
The year of the Great Humbling
Covid-19 has pricked the bubble of human supremacy and revealed our fragility. And the economic destruction means we cannot…
By
The photo that shaped me: Jason Okundaye on his childhood home
My council flat became a source of shame – but the boy in this photograph knows nothing of that…
By
The photo that shaped me: Rowan Williams on Madeleine Delbrêl
Here she is, squatting down, head cocked, birdlike, to listen to a small girl.
By
The photo that shaped me: Grayson Perry on his father’s motorbike
When I was four, my dad left because my mother had an affair with the milkman. I remember my…
By
The photo that shaped me: Deborah Levy on Sister Rosetta Tharpe
The godmother of rock’n’roll is my role model for middle age, old age and any age.
By
The photo that shaped me: Suzanne Moore on her grandmother’s baby
Here is a picture of my grandmother, Grace, with the only child she gave birth to.
By
The photo that shaped me: Christina Lamb on Benazir Bhutto
No photo in my writing room is quite as poignant as this one of Bhutto, taken on 27 December…
By
Marieke Lucas Rijneveld: “Openly Falling”
A new poem by the International Booker Prize winner, written in response to Curtis Parratt’s photo “Fall (5)”.
By
The photo that shaped me: Kevin Barry on Elvis’s packed lunch
Your eyes do not deceive: Elvis Presley buys lunch from a platform vendor.
By
The photo that shaped me: Lucy Ellmann on her childhood bird costume
I was about five when this picture was taken, and already getting too big for my bird costume.
By
The photo that shaped me: Howard Jacobson on his mother’s eyes
Is it only because this is a photograph of my mother that I feel protective of it?
By
Joni Mitchell: “I know what I want and I’m not afraid to stand up for it”
The musician on being misunderstood, playing ping pong and why her songs aren't about her.
By
The photo that shaped me: Olivia Laing on Annie Leibovitz’s “The Girls”
I’ve had a copy of this photo of Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon on my desk for years. When…
By
How Valerius de Saedeleer brought Belgian art to Wales
A refugee displaced by the First World War, de Saedeleer found both home and inspiration in the valleys of…
By
The many lives of Jacqueline Wilson
The bestselling author reflects on her difficult childhood, meeting her wife and taking on the smug, middle-class world of…
By
The best TV of Christmas 2020
The highs and lows of festive viewing, from Regency drama to TV’s crummiest game show.
By
The best films for Christmas 2020
Though most aren’t showing in cinemas, a handful of streaming releases try to make the season bright.
By
The ten best films of 2020
New Statesman critic Ryan Gilbey chooses his top movies of the year.
By
The ten best TV shows of 2020
New Statesman critic Rachel Cooke chooses her top programmes of the year.
By
The best of Christmas radio
The audio highlights of the festive season.
By
The White Gods
A new short story by leading British thriller writer Lawrence Osborne.
By
How Netflix changed the channel
The unorthodox philosophy that transformed a struggling mail-order DVD company into one of the tech industry’s great powers.
By
How class defines British food
The story of our culinary landscape is one of changing tastes and widening inequality.
By
The four thinkers who reinvented philosophy
Between the wars, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Martin Heidegger, Ernst Cassirer and Walter Benjamin sought to transform the world by giving…
By
Unmasking Graham Greene
Graham Greene was the consummate literary professional. But a new biography shows how profound mental instability shaped his chaotic…
By
NS Poetry: Car Park, Christmas Eve and January 1st
Two new poems by Alison Brackenbury.
By
The best children’s books for Christmas 2020
In a difficult year, let's give children the best and most cheering books.
By
NS Recommends: New books from David Sedaris, Margaret Atwood, Iain Dale and Robin Turner
Sedaris' The Best of Me, Atwood's Dearly, Dale's The Prime Ministers and Believe in Magic by Turner.
By
The scampering energy of a 16-year-old’s nature diary
Dara McAnulty's Diary of a Young Naturalist is written in tumbling, intelligent, young prose that rolls quickly through the…
By
How Jürgen Klopp became the Mersey messiah
Thanks to his good humour and hard work, football fans fell in love with the not-so-cool but incredibly dedicated…
By
The NS Poem: Mam Tor
A new poem by Ben Wilkinson
By
First Thoughts: mass vaccination, an Eton mess, and the Guardian’s silence on the Moore affair
I am unable to stop my mind racing with worries, from Pfizer side-effects to post-Brexit transport blockages.
By
“Unless we adapt and change, we are brittle”: Julia Samuel on healing from trauma
The British psychotherapist discusses her person-centred approach to therapy and facing grief in an age of crisis.
By
Commons Confidential: Shop-soiled mannequins
Your weekly dose of gossip from around Westminster.
By
How will we remember 2020?
The year of lockdowns and remote working may seem like a blur – but one cognitive psychologist explains why remembering the pandemic…
By
My grandad devoted his career to learning the lessons of Aids. Now we risk forgetting them
Trump's indifference towards Covid-19 is a near-perfect echo of the handling of HIV/Aids under Ronald Reagan.
By
If the events of this pandemic year have taught me anything, it is the virtue of empathy
Inequalities run deep in the US, but protests across the world prove the political power of collective action.
By
The pandemic won’t be a great global reset
As Covid-19 prompted life to move online and distance mattered less, globalisation was not reversed but recast.
By
Ian Hislop’s diary: Art on Zoom, podcast intrigue and box sets – 2020 hasn’t been all bad
It's difficult to remember anything about this year apart from the pandemic, except that Succession served as a good escape.
By
Editor’s Note: A new politics of the common good and Jonathan Van-Tam’s mixed metaphors
The public have been reassured by the deputy chief medical officer's folksy analogies and "Mum test".
By
The year in football: swooning over Grealish, full-bodied clichés and the demise of Bielsa’s bucket
Plus as the stadiums stood silent, lots of well-loved commentary clichés have kept us amusingly distracted.
By
I don’t want a perfect Christmas, I just want to hug my children until they beg to escape
This year more than ever we'll all be doing a lot of muddling through, and hanging on stoically for…
By
I will spend the festive season with a goose and a dog, and one of them makes me nervous
Christmas involves a temporary reinsertion into the family home, and this year I'll have a four-legged friend sharing the sofa.
By
Gary Numan Q&A: “I don’t feel a need to lie, never have“
The musician discusses the Second World War fighter pilot Douglas Bader, Winston Churchill and The Great British Bake Off.
By
Subscriber of the week: Rudolph
Email emily.bootle@newstatesman.co.uk if you would like to be the New Statesman's Subscriber of the Week.
By
This England: Don’t get the small stuff
This column – which, though named after a line in Shakespeare’s “Richard II”, refers to the whole of Britain…
By
Whether you’re feeding one or 12 this Christmas, it’s a year to be kind to yourself
It's going to be a strange festive period for most, so indulge with a dinner of stollen, boozy mince…
By First Thoughts: mass vaccination, an Eton mess, and the Guardian’s silence on the Moore affair
I am unable to stop my mind racing with worries, from Pfizer side-effects to post-Brexit transport blockages.
By My grandad devoted his career to learning the lessons of Aids. Now we risk forgetting them
Trump's indifference towards Covid-19 is a near-perfect echo of the handling of HIV/Aids under Ronald Reagan.
By “Unless we adapt and change, we are brittle”: Julia Samuel on healing from trauma
The British psychotherapist discusses her person-centred approach to therapy and facing grief in an age of crisis.
By If the events of this pandemic year have taught me anything, it is the virtue of empathy
Inequalities run deep in the US, but protests across the world prove the political power of collective action.
By Commons Confidential: Shop-soiled mannequins
Your weekly dose of gossip from around Westminster.
By How will we remember 2020?
The year of lockdowns and remote working may seem like a blur – but one cognitive psychologist explains why remembering the pandemic…
By The pandemic won’t be a great global reset
As Covid-19 prompted life to move online and distance mattered less, globalisation was not reversed but recast.
By Ian Hislop’s diary: Art on Zoom, podcast intrigue and box sets – 2020 hasn’t been all bad
It's difficult to remember anything about this year apart from the pandemic, except that Succession served as a good escape.
By Editor’s Note: A new politics of the common good and Jonathan Van-Tam’s mixed metaphors
The public have been reassured by the deputy chief medical officer's folksy analogies and "Mum test".
By The ten best films of 2020
New Statesman critic Ryan Gilbey chooses his top movies of the year.
By The ten best TV shows of 2020
New Statesman critic Rachel Cooke chooses her top programmes of the year.
By The best of Christmas radio
The audio highlights of the festive season.
By The best TV of Christmas 2020
The highs and lows of festive viewing, from Regency drama to TV’s crummiest game show.
By The best films for Christmas 2020
Though most aren’t showing in cinemas, a handful of streaming releases try to make the season bright.
By
The photo that shaped me
New Statesman contributors tell the stories behind their favourite photographs.
By The best children’s books for Christmas 2020
In a difficult year, let's give children the best and most cheering books.
By The scampering energy of a 16-year-old’s nature diary
Dara McAnulty's Diary of a Young Naturalist is written in tumbling, intelligent, young prose that rolls quickly through the…
By The year in football: swooning over Grealish, full-bodied clichés and the demise of Bielsa’s bucket
Plus as the stadiums stood silent, lots of well-loved commentary clichés have kept us amusingly distracted.
By How Jürgen Klopp became the Mersey messiah
Thanks to his good humour and hard work, football fans fell in love with the not-so-cool but incredibly dedicated…
By The NS Poem: Mam Tor
A new poem by Ben Wilkinson
By Gary Numan Q&A: “I don’t feel a need to lie, never have“
The musician discusses the Second World War fighter pilot Douglas Bader, Winston Churchill and The Great British Bake Off.
By Subscriber of the week: Rudolph
Email emily.bootle@newstatesman.co.uk if you would like to be the New Statesman's Subscriber of the Week.
By NS Poetry: Car Park, Christmas Eve and January 1st
Two new poems by Alison Brackenbury.
By I will spend the festive season with a goose and a dog, and one of them makes me nervous
Christmas involves a temporary reinsertion into the family home, and this year I'll have a four-legged friend sharing the sofa.
By NS Recommends: New books from David Sedaris, Margaret Atwood, Iain Dale and Robin Turner
Sedaris' The Best of Me, Atwood's Dearly, Dale's The Prime Ministers and Believe in Magic by Turner.
By I don’t want a perfect Christmas, I just want to hug my children until they beg to escape
This year more than ever we'll all be doing a lot of muddling through, and hanging on stoically for…
By This England: Don’t get the small stuff
This column – which, though named after a line in Shakespeare’s “Richard II”, refers to the whole of Britain…
By Whether you’re feeding one or 12 this Christmas, it’s a year to be kind to yourself
It's going to be a strange festive period for most, so indulge with a dinner of stollen, boozy mince…
By
The night that changed my life: writers share the cultural encounters that shaped them
Suzanne Moore, Simon Armitage, Musa Okwonga, Olivia Laing and others recall life-changing moments.
By
The night that changed my life: Suzanne Moore on her daughter’s coma
People think they know about comas but they don’t. It’s not like the films.
By
The night that changed my life: Frank Cottrell-Boyce on seeing The Pogues by accident
Their performance showed me that sincerity always beats irony.
By
The night that changed my life: Josie Rourke on an all-male As You Like It in Manchester
Watching Adrian Lester on stage, I realised that there was such a thing as transcendent performance.
By
The night that changed my life: Philip Hoare on a lifetime shared with David Bowie
It’s one long performance, one long evening shading into brilliant night.
By
The night that changed my life: Eimear McBride on Romeo Castellucci’s take on the Divine Comedy
I was finishing the first draft of my second novel and hoping to see something that might improve the…
By
The night that changed my life: John Gray on having dinner with JG Ballard
When I met the late JG Ballard for the first time, around 20 years ago in a Covent Garden…
By
The night that changed my life: Jonathan Coe on the premiere of Steve Reich’s Different Trains
The impact of the piece, on me and on everyone else in the hall that night, was overwhelming.
By
The night that changed my life: Lavinia Greenlaw on Anni Albers at the Tate
I left the Albers retrospective feeling a mixture of triumph and rage.
By
The night that changed my life: Kevin Barry on watching Paris, Texas with his father
I could see that he was moved by the story, perhaps uncomfortably so.
By
The night that changed my life: Jon Savage on discovering Aubrey Beardsley
Beardsley’s exquisite line drawings opened my eyes to art.
By
The night that changed my life: Margaret Drabble on Watching Pirandello on TV in 1954
I felt I was entering the adult world.
By
The night that changed my life: Musa Okwonga on a game-changing hip-hop night
A whole gang of us had gone to 333 in Old Street check out the music – but my friend…
By
The night that changed my life: Simon Callow on his first opera
It was 1965; I was a 16-year-old schoolboy besotted by classical music but only, so far, on record.
By
The night that changed my life: Sarah Hall on seeing Eric Clapton live
It didn’t make me a rock convert: but it hooked me on live music.
By
The night that changed my life: Alan Johnson on joining the Labour Party
Three pints with Mick from four doors down was all it took for me to sign up.
By
The night that changed my life: Olivia Laing on the New York cabaret that helped her discover her queer identity
“I’m trans,” I told a friend on the steps outside, after one of those dazzling nights.
By
The night that changed my life: Rowan Williams on watching Ivan the Terrible on TV
I was 12 when I asked my parents if I could stay up late to watch Sergei Eisenstein’s Ivan…
By
The night that changed my life: Kate Mosse on her first trip to the theatre
I still remember it, aged six, right down to the green carpet and purple seats.
By
The night that changed my life: Simon Armitage on David Bowie at the V&A
The exhibition turned me from a grumpy old man into a weeping 15-year-old boy.
By
The night that changed my life: David Hare on eating cold roast beef with Alfred Hitchcock
I met a great artist for the first time when I was 19, in 1966, Alfred Hitchcock came to…
By
The night that changed my life: Paul Morley on the Sex Pistols’ legendary 1976 gig in Manchester
I became the writer I wanted to be writing from a city that reacted the quickest and smartest to…
By
The night that changed my life: Rose Tremain on interviewing her teenage idol
I finally met the hero of my youth, Charles Aznavour, at 57. He didn’t disappoint.
By
A life on the tracks
From Alpine tunnels to the Zambian border, seeing the world by train brings adventure, intriguing company – and a deep…
By
“I can feel the male and female in me flying around in a fury when I’m singing“: LP on songwriting and diversity
She has written hits for Rihanna, Cher and Christina Aguilera – and she's been dropped by a series of major…
By
Sir Edwin Landseer’s winter painting Man Proposes, God Disposes
An image of imperial hubris or an environmental allegory?
By
Festive Spirit
A new short story by Kate Atkinson.
By
The best children’s books to buy this Christmas
From wild beasts to princesses.
By
Malachy Tallack’s The Valley at the Centre of the World: an authentic novel of island life
Having lived in Fair Isle, the most remote inhabited island in Britain, and edited the magazine Shetland Life, Tallack…
By
Joyce Carol Oates’s The Hazards of Time Travel is vivid and frightening
Oates’s new novel is a chilling and eerie read.
By
The life of England’s last great pub landlady
Through the story of her grandmother’s rural Home Counties pub, Laura Thompson offers us a lyrical portrait of a…
By
Why Netflix is making deliberately bad Christmas movies
The streaming service is trying out the Hallmark strategy – pumping out intentionally average festive films in absurdly high…
By
China’s new trading “Silk Road” will be as influential as the original
The country’s Belt and Road programme is less a revolution than a reversion to a previous state.
By
The best films of 2018
From American Animals to Roma.
By
Monopoli Blues: love and espionage in the Second World War
Tim Clark's book makes a subtle but very important point: wouldn’t it be better to learn about your parents’ or…
By
Around The Clock
One man’s attempt to catch every second of Christian Marclay’s astonishing 24-hour film installation, The Clock.
By
Armistice
A new poem by Helen Mort
By
The best films in the cinema this Christmas
From Mary Poppins Returns to Holmes and Watson.
By
Our once and future king
No indisputable evidence exists for a “real” King Arthur, but, fictional or not, Britain has always needed him.
By
The best podcasts of 2018
From Sandra to Mostly Lit.
By
How Hermann Hesse became a hero of the Sixties counterculture
“Before your LSD session, read Siddartha and Steppenwolf," advised Timothy Leary.
By
The best TV of 2018
From Killing Eve to A Very English Scandal.
By
The best radio shows to listen to this Christmas
Forest magic, Angelina and the Queen of Scots.
By
Despite the horror, loneliness and glitter, I have learned to love Christmas music
I get a rush of gratitude that I was a teenager when we had the mindless proletarian jollity of…
By
After pulling off the biggest midterm win in history, House Democrats are coming for Trump
The new and diverse freshman class will be arriving on Capitol Hill with a spring in their step.
By
The letters that won the war
In their correspondence, Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin displayed the combination of realpolitik, illusion and hubris that is essential for…
By
The highs and lows of this year’s Christmas TV
From Agatha Christie to, er, Anne Widdecombe.
By
On Christmas Day, the Church makes a stand against privatised spirituality
There can be the assumption that everyone has a safe family to withdraw to at Christmas.
By
The amateur scientists tackling the global energy crisis
In garages and sheds, a dedicated band of amateurs is trying to answer the biggest question in energy: whether…
By
At 2am, Britain’s largest wholesale market buzzes with thoughts of Brexit and purple Brussels sprouts
Hit hard by nouvelle cuisine and the financial crash, seasonal trade here isn’t what it once was.
By
This has been a year of dotting about the place. Rather like last year, then
My gratitude to my hosts-cum-landlords knows no bounds.
By
Time travel on a winter’s woodland walk
A winter wood reveals the bones of the landscape it grows upon, the geographical contours of slopes, gullies and…
By
The doctor won’t see you now
In the past five years, 450 GP practices have closed – and patients suffer when their doctors don’t truly…
By
I don’t know my top albums of 2018 – but I know my favourite tracks, and their Best Bits
I break songs down into small morsels, getting hooked by tiny details, passing moments that offer fleeting glimpses of heaven.
By
How I was radicalised by Delia Smith into caring more about the planet
Two years ago, I got an email from a commissioning editor asking if I felt like working my way through…
By
What Europe can learn from Alexander Hamilton
In 2018, despite the prompting of President Macron, the EU missed a crucial window for reform. Can it heal…
By
Aboard May Force One, I begin to wonder if the Prime Minister’s Christmas wish will be granted
In the past few days in Buenos Aires, following the PM has been bizarre in the extreme.
By
Double-barrelled names and arm-crossing coaches: highlights from this football season
Season’s greetings, bottle of wine, will you still need me, will you still read me, when I tell you…
By
From the King Across the Water to the best Self-Own, roll up for our 2018 political awards
David Miliband spent another year persistently refusing to move back to Britain and found a new centrist party.
By
Adam Kay’s Diary: Fainting fans, a face-planting student and Trump’s jailhouse rock
A C-section is probably the worst place to be when your tongue still tastes of Jägerbomb and you’re sweating…
By
Robert Macfarlane Q&A: “Amid political awfulness, this year brought hope in the dark“
The writer talks Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, insects, and contemplating life and death.
By
How David Walliams conquered Christmas
The unlikely rise of the bestselling children’s author.
By
How Pelagius’s philosophy of free will shaped European culture
Like the rebel theologian, we believe in the perfectibility of mankind, the ability of people to make the right…
By
Momentum head Jon Lansman on the left’s unfinished revolution
The veteran Bennite organiser on Brexit, Gramsci, the Soviet Union and planning for “when Jeremy and I are both dead”.
By
How keeping a one-line-a-day diary gives life shape and meaning
If I abandon my diary for only a few days, it scares me how much I struggle to fill…
By
How the Lockerbie disaster haunts Scotland, 30 years on
The explosion on Pan Am Flight 103 ripped the aircraft apart and the debris plummeted on to the roofs…
By
Commons Confidential: IDS runs scared of an election
Your festive dose of gossip from around Westminster.
By
Letter of the week: Not just another xenophobe
A selection of the best letters received from our readers this week. Email letters@newstatesman.co.uk to have your thoughts voiced…
By
How the People’s Vote campaign could be the seed of a new centrist party
Plus: the more I know about Brexit, the less I feel I know.
By
The New Statesman’s A to Z of the political year
From gammon to centrist parties, 2018 has been a rollercoaster from start to finish. And, quite frankly, we’re glad to…
By
Most NS editors have left office with a sense of disillusion and disappointment. Yet I took the job
I started just as Obama became president of the US and thought I was just passing through, on my…
By
Leader: After austerity
By harnessing the idealism and ambition that inspired the postwar generation, Britain can remake itself once more.
By
Fiona Mozley on Cassadaga by Bright Eyes: “A twist on adolescent idealism”
From the Long Players series: writers on their most cherished albums.
By
Lavinia Greenlaw on White Light/White Heat by The Velvet Underground: “An experiment in limits and scale”
From the Long Players series: writers on their most cherished albums.
By
Alan Johnson on Revolver by the Beatles: “The greatest testament to an incredible phenomenon”
From the Long Players series: writers on their most cherished albums.
By
Linda Grant on Hejira by Joni Mitchell: “It stamped itself irrevocably on my life”
From the Long Players series: writers on their most cherished albums.
By
John Harris on A Love Supreme by John Coltrane: “This was heady, elemental stuff”
From the Long Players series: writers on their most cherished albums.
By
Bonnie Greer on Cheap Thrills and Janis Joplin: “You could hear the bourbon in her veins”
From the Long Players series: writers on their most cherished albums.
By
John Burnside on A Natural Disaster by Anathema: “A work of taut beauty and control”
From the Long Players series: writers on their most cherished albums.
By
Suzanne Moore on Fresh by Sly and the Family Stone: “His growl is pure libido”
From the Long Players series: writers on their most cherished albums.
By
Jonathan Coe on A Symphony of Amaranths by Neil Ardley: “Epic but still intimate”
From the Long Players series: writers on their most cherished albums.
By
David Hepworth on Sail Away by Randy Newman: “You wouldn’t be allowed to make it today”
From the Long Players series: writers on their most cherished albums.
By
Bernardine Evaristo on Sweet Honey in the Rock: “They encapsulate the early years of black feminism”
From the Long Players series: writers on their most cherished albums.
By
Meg Rosoff on This Year’s Model by Elvis Costello: “My first rock’n’roll God”
From the Long Players series: writers on their most cherished albums.
By
Mark Ellen on The B-52’s: “A crisp cartoon of sound and vision”
From the Long Players series: writers on their most cherished albums.
By
Joe Dunthorne on Black Sunday by Cypress Hill: “My favourite way to get blazed”
From the Long Players series: writers on their most cherished albums.
By
Deborah Levy on Ziggy Stardust by David Bowie: “Britain needs this so much more than Brexit”
From the Long Players series: writers on their most cherished albums.
By
Ian Rankin on Solid Air by John Martyn: “The voice of a whisky-soaked angel”
From the Long Players series: writers on their most cherished albums.
By
From S-Town to Made of Human: the best podcasts of 2017
Featuring true-crime, musical dissection, mental health and an eccentric horologist.
By
David Mitchell on Blue by Joni Mitchell: “It’s art, so it’s ageless”
The album transformed my understanding of what songs could do.
By
Tracey Thorn on Innervisions by Stevie Wonder: “Full of serious intent – and danceable”
From the Long Players series: writers on their most cherished albums.
By
Emily Berry on To Bring You My Love by PJ Harvey: “It speaks to your shipwrecked feelings”
From the Long Players series: writers on their most cherished albums.
By
Kate Mossman on The Rhythm of the Saints by Paul Simon: “A kind of musical synaesthesia”
From the Long Players series: writers on their most cherished albums.
By
Lionel Shriver on Last Exit to Brooklyn by Mark Knopfler: “Eternal notes of lost innocence”
From the Long Players series: writers on their most cherished albums.
By
Eimear McBride on Tindersticks (1995 album): “It has shaped how I think about life”
From the Long Players series: writers on their most cherished albums.
By
Long Players: writers on their most cherished albums
Ali Smith, Jonathan Coe, Sarah Perry, George Saunders and others pick their all-time favourites.
By
Billy Bragg on Ronnie Lane’s Slim Chance: “He scours the edgelands of British pop culture”
From the Long Players series: writers on their most cherished albums.
By
Sarah Perry on Rachmaninov: “By the end of the first movement I was in tears”
From the Long Players series: writers on their most cherished albums.
By
Will Self on Astral Weeks by Van Morrison: “I felt his words like a corkscrew to my heart”
From the Long Players series: writers on their most cherished albums.
By
Ali Smith on her favourite albums: “Trying to choose one ended in mutiny”
From the Long Players series: writers on their most cherished albums.
By
Musa Okwonga on Aquemini by Outkast: “The kind of thing you could play to aliens”
From the Long Players series: writers on their most cherished albums.
By
George Saunders on Fragile by Yes: “A window was thrown open in my mind”
From the Long Players series: writers on their most cherished albums.
By
Graham Linehan Q&A: “Writing Father Ted was like being hooked up to a drip full of endorphins“
The comedy writer on Stephen King novels, Nazi hunters, and his rejected sitcom theme tune.
By
Mohicans, fondue and manic managers: the best and worst of the football season
Featuring a zinger from Ken Dodd, showing that at 90 he still has a finger on the local tickling…
By
The present most doctors want for Christmas is a simple “thank you”
I came away from my 25 December shift feeling I hadn’t made a jot of real difference to anyone.
By
I’m easy to buy for, just put the Christmas presents of my teenage years on repeat
In 1976, when I was 14, I “got GORGEOUS pressies – hairdryer, earrings, perfume. Really GREAT day.”
By
A brush with some lawyers leaves me longing for Scotland and its seven billion stars
My children, in correspondence with me, have noted that I have taken surprisingly well to rural life.
By
Almond milk Baileys, anyone? The best vegan treats for Christmas
This is set to be the easiest year yet for plant munchers and those catering for them.
By
Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys: witness man’s native wit doing battle with the supernatural
This BBC Radio 4 adaptation zig-zags between feeling tones in a woozy, chameleonic way.
By
From The Crown to The League of Gentlemen, what you should watch on TV this Christmas
Plus, the small screen highlights of 2017 that you may have missed.
By
2017 was the year women’s voices were finally heard in pop culture
When women’s stories are respected as much as men’s, it results in diverse, exciting work.
By
The Disaster Artist shows truly bad cinema, like its opposite, is born of sincerity and vision
James Franco’s film tells the bewildering story of The Room, generally considered the world’s worst movie.
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A Christmas Carol at the Old Vic: seasonal sweetness offset by more acrid notes
Rhys Ifans gives a Scrooge that is wonderfully funny, seductive and interactive with the audience.
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“Too many tunes, always too many tunes!” A pool party in Ibiza with Craig David
The reinvention of an R&B star.
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Gorse Mites
A new poem by Matt Howard.
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The Good Samaritan: how politics transformed the meaning of a biblical story
The former Archbishop reviews The Political Samaritan: How Power Hijacked a Parable by Nick Spencer.
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Winter warmers: the best drink books of 2017
Featuring histories and tasting guides, booze-soaked memoirs, and a global tour of natural wineries.
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Tim Shipman’s Fall Out reveals the nastiness behind the scenes of a Tory tragedy
At the time, I heard plenty about the unhappiness of civil servants and ministers. But the scale of the discontent…
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So Here It Is: Dave Hill on Slade’s pretension-free rock memoir
This is a story of how some adversities get conquered, and how others still require conquering.
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Brolliology: the history of umbrellas in all their ingenuity and weirdness
Marion Rankine writes that, in death, the brolly “is good for very little else”.
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The Last Man in Europe is a riveting novel about Orwell’s last days
Dennis Glover, an Australian political speechwriter, has written a fictional homage to the moral crusader.
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Playboys & Mayfair Men: gender, crime and novel insights into pre-war Britain
Angus McLaren explores a seedy tale from 1930s London.
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Beneath Another Sky: a historian’s revisionist, global take on migration and identity
Norman Davies explainas how the places in which human beings fashion their identities are shaped by migration and the…
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The 2017 New Statesman A to Z of the political year
A snap general election, you say – what could possibly go wrong? Helen Lewis, Anoosh Chakelian, Stephen Bush and…
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Slovenia – the happy country that should be even happier
Slovenia is a small country on the sunny side of the Alps, once part of communist Yugoslavia. The streets…
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Nigel Farage: the arsonist in exile
He is often described as the most successful politician of his generation – even by those who despise him.…
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Feathered guests from the east: Helen Macdonald’s winter reflection
Hawfinches are legendarily mysterious, secretive and difficult to find, writes the author of H Is for Hawk.
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Why Edmund Burke is a philosopher for our troubled times
His work can help us negotiate a path between the extremes of radical right and revolutionary left.
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How quantum computing will change the world
We are on the cusp of a new era of computing, with Google, IBM and other tech companies using…
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Christmas without Christians: how do we celebrate in a secular age?
Just 15 per cent of people now consider themselves to be members of the Church of England.
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Why Michael Heseltine is still raging against Brexit
This year, at the age of 83, the Tory peer became one of the oldest rebels in history.
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Commons Confidential: Donald gets trumped
Your weekly dose of gossip from around Westminster.
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Are Welsh male voice choirs slowly dying out?
There has been a 20 per cent drop in choir membership in the valleys in the past ten years.
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As evidence grows of southpaw supremacy, have we reached peak left-handedness?
In sport, a critical mass of right-handers are required to make left-handers look good.
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Many white evangelicals stand by Trump because they are more white than evangelical
They have gone from being obsessed with the personal lives of politicians to, basically, not giving a damn.
By Why the church is like an ecclesiastical version of Marks & Spencer
What can happen inside a church building? Is it sacred space and if so, what are the limits?
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On the Tube, I saw the father I’d never met – and was happy to find that I had nothing to say to him
I looked at my feet and walked past the man who had no idea that I was his son.
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Tony Blair: There is a “void at the heart” of Labour’s Brexit strategy
The former Labour leader on tech, the Middle East and the choice facing Labour – carry on with a hard…
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From “The Unknown Hour”
A new poem by Ben Okri, on Brexit and our times.
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Male feminists are the turkeys who voted for… a long and fulfilling life
International Men’s Day could and should be just like Christmas: a celebration of shared humanity.
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In Brussels, it feels like Britain is the embarrassing relative at Christmas
Theresa May has perhaps become the auntie who is invited for the turkey feast but not the party.
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Armando Iannucci’s Diary: Nostalgia for the Winter of Discontent
The writer talks Brexit, finding plot holes in the Bible, and staying positive in a depressing world.
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This year, Labour was united and energised – we are poised to transform the country
The next general election will be won on the battlefield of ideas – and our party is more than…
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Bicorne hats, Brexit bluster and ill-advised Budget banter: my political awards of 2017
The Award For Casual Bragging? There could only be one winner.
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The border question can be solved, but only once Britain understands what the Irish want
Brexit presents a host of potential problems that Ireland never asked for and could really do without.
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The next election will be a battle between Corbynism and Brexitism
Labour is no longer a party of centre-left social democracy.
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The New Statesman Leader: A year of darkness and light
2017 was a difficult year – but there was also cause for hope.
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