How Michael Rosen returned from the brink of death
The children’s author on surviving Covid and the “chaos and contradiction” of the Conservative government’s pandemic crisis.
By
Spring special 2021
What is literature for?
We should start owning our reading and asking more serious questions about what place literary education has in our…
By
Covid-19 and the anxiety epidemic
Why so many of us are struggling to imagine a return to the pre-coronavirus routine, and fear life after lockdown.
By
Commons Confidential: The return of Lembit Öpik
Your weekly dose of gossip from around Wesminster.
By
China’s new Silk Road
How Xi Jinping will use the political opportunity provided by the coronavirus crisis to exploit a divided EU.
By
First Thoughts: Herd immunity, the end of Tory philosophy and longing for the new cricket season
The advocates of herd immunity remind us why it's always worth checking the credentials of academics, and why county cricket…
By
The female of the species is more healthy than the male
Physician Sharon Moalem on the role our sex chromosomes play in immunity and genetic advantage.
By
Commons Confidential: The new bag ’n’ specs
Your weekly dose of gossip from around Westminster.
By
Singing for a lost tomorrow: Britain’s lockdown choirs
Why political choirs are on the rise, even in the face of a pandemic.
By
The man who saw everything
Richard Mabey’s powers of noticing made him the godfather of “the new nature writing”. At 80, he reflects on…
By
The voice in your head
How a movement of people who hear voices is reshaping our understanding of mental illness – and consciousness itself.
By
How to forge a family
When the pandemic hit I was hurled from the life of a metropolitan millennial cliché to caring for two little girls in rural Oxfordshire.
By
The 1990s: An age without qualities
Often heralded as the best decade ever, the 1990s brought dark warnings about the future – and many have come…
By
Why Italy remains ungovernable
Following a tough winter in lockdown, in January the nation treated itself to a new political psychodrama.
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Alone in the new world
This time last year I went for a very ordinary walk, unaware of the disruption, trauma and solitude that…
By
Populism without the people
By peddling the politics of grievance and waging tedious culture wars, the right has retreated into a realm of fantasy.…
By
The Covid reset
How the pandemic is transforming our relationship with work, leisure and care.
By
Spring reflection: Learning from the birds
An exotic, acquisitive bird-watching trip on the other side of the world already feels like an artefact of another age.…
By
Paris is an open prison
Under lockdown, the City of Light has been thrown into terrible darkness.
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Why this crisis is a turning point in history
The era of peak globalisation is over. For those of us not on the front line, clearing the mind and…
By
Why the US criminal justice system locks up so many women
The notoriously high prison population in the US is starting to decline – so why is the number of jailed…
By
Letter from Afghanistan: “We have just defeated a superpower”
Political deadlock in Kabul, the onset of coronavirus, and a resurgent Taliban – Afghanistan’s future looks bleaker than ever.
By
Personal Story: The slave and master inside me
I am the result of the movement of bodies on ships. Sails, winches, shackles and cane fields. I am…
By
Why we are living in JG Ballard’s world
The visionary English novelist’s dystopian imagination, defined by cataclysmic events, quarantines and technological isolation, has never felt so prescient.
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Comfort and joy
Hilary Mantel, Rowan Williams, Elif Shafak, Michael Morpurgo and more on the cultural artefacts and pursuits that bring them…
By
Why weren’t we ready?
A lethal pandemic was considered the most serious security risk to the UK. But nothing was done.
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Keir Starmer: The sensible radical
The former human rights lawyer aspires to unite not only the troubled Labour Party but the country. But who is…
By
How Georges Simenon found his eye
In the 1930s, the creator of Maigret travelled the world as a journalist. His photographs reveal an artistic sensibility…
By
AA Milne’s pacifism and patriotism
A survivor of the Somme, the man who invented Winnie-the-Pooh wrangled with his conscience in his non-fiction – trying…
By
When illness is invisible
Could a better understanding of how society affects sickness and the brain help us solve medical mysteries?
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Edward St Aubyn’s Double Blind is a clumsy critique of modern science
The novel veers between jet-setting farce and musings on recent issues of Current Biology.
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Politics for the end of the world
How the crises of our times pose fundamental questions about the role of the nation state in our survival
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Harry Rée: teacher, chancer, survivor, spy
Harry Rée was a grammar school teacher when war broke out in 1939. Then he joined Churchill’s secret army.
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The White Man’s Liberation Front
A new short story by Bernardine Evaristo.
By
The NS Poem: Horse chestnut
A new poem by Matt Howard.
By
NS Recommends: New books from Anthony Seldon, Marina Warner, Megan Nolan and Nikesh Shukla
Seldon's The Impossible Office?, Warner's Inventory of a Life Mislaid, Nolan's Acts of Desperation and Shukla's Brown Baby.
By
The best new children’s stories for Easter 2021
Featuring remote islands and even more remote parents.
By
The Manor
A new poem by Simon Armitage.
By
Why we struggle to pay attention
The trouble of focusing in a fractured world.
By
The best new children’s books for now
What to do with bored, fractious children in lockdown conditions? Read with them.
By
Patricia Highsmith’s psychopath heroes
Her sly, rich novels do not seem tailor-made for cinema – but 100 years after her birth, Highsmith’s compelling…
By
Tina Turner and the music industry’s obsession with survival stories
A new HBO documentary about Tina Turner shows how her victimhood became a commodity.
By
The blossom-filled landscapes of Charles Conder
The young artist’s nights of dissipation were at odds with the sunny fecundity of his landscapes.
By
Grayson Perry: “We are living through a moment of shock”
The award-winning artist on race, humour and art in a time of crisis.
By
Hospital paintings and the art of healing
The relentlessly cheery pictures found in medical centres today are a far cry from the pious, grand and distressing…
By
Is Line of Duty gaslighting me?
Watching the new series has made me wonder if I need to up my intake of vitamin D or…
By
Francis Lee’s Ammonite is a film of earthy, robust sensuality
Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan star as windswept lovers in a movie that is more than just “Portrait of…
By
BBC Radio 4’s Conspiracies is a deep, broad consideration of conspiratorial thinking
Phil Tinline digs through history, journalism, fiction and film to try to understand why the idea of being “in…
By
Netflix’s Tiger King is absurd, voyeuristic television
It’s also the most popular show on Netflix right now.
By
Children’s films to stream in lockdown
From Trolls World Tour to Disney+.
By
BBC Four’s addictive new Norwegian drama, Twin
This crime series is a great imposter story.
By
The Kubrick Test offers a first-hand account of the director’s working methods
Actor Kerry Shale writes and stars in a radio play about Full Metal Jacket.
By
Lockdowns are the equivalent of a car airbag, and only bad drivers need to keep activating them
Why Boris Johnson’s insistence that the UK’s unlocking is “irreversible” is a risky one.
By
In lockdown, I wanted to find out: what’s in a street name?
The names we give to roads, schools and buildings are important – and nowhere is this more apparent than…
By
As Germany’s restrictions drag on indefinitely, I turn to gardening to lift the ambient gloom
At one time most Germans agreed with Covid rules, but after a long winter everyone is fed up of acting responsibly.
By
Editor’s Note: Salmond vs Sturgeon, in praise of the Oxford vaccine and why we must cherish Melvyn Bragg
The hatred between Salmond and Sturgeon has Shakespearean depths, and beyond their personal struggle the unity of the kingdom is at…
By
We need answers to the drugs debate, but we shouldn’t look to charismatic outliers to find them
What a new book, written by a neuroscientist and heroin user, gets wrong about drug decriminalisation.
By
We are living in a world made by Xi Jinping – and Britain is desperate to find its place in it
China’s new industrial strategy has proved as much of a shock to British politics as Brexit and the triumph…
By
Being prime minister is too big a job for anybody – let alone a blundering golden-haired oaf
This year marks the 300th anniversary of the office of prime minister, so it’s probably about time we asked:…
By
It’s too early to write off Keir Starmer’s leadership – but soon he will have to address the nation
The Labour Party has never much liked being led, and in his best moments so far Starmer has threatened…
By
I used to think I was good at being by myself, but if you’re alone now, you’re really alone
Life feels so savagely hollow to me right now that to look closely at an hour seems terrifying.
By
Italy Notebook: Our life under lockdown, retracing Garibaldi’s footsteps, and resisting the talk of war
Italy is an individual shut up in a room with the urgent voice of the news bulletin.
By
We are all frogs in a pan of water, and coronavirus reminds us that it is heating up dangerously
The pandemic is forcing us out of our routines, individually and collectively.
By
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’s Diary: Rediscovering the common good, Passover in isolation, and lessons from a gulag survivor
For perhaps the first time in 32 centuries, Jews around the world will be unable to celebrate the festival…
By
Using military language to discuss coronavirus is dangerous and irresponsible – the US must stop
Language and thinking of war could be used to justify and make palatable this administration’s rejection of refugees.
By
I have always appreciated London’s parks and its efforts to keep them open show the city at its best
In east London, Tower Hamlets Council has shut Victoria Park, meaning more people are being crowded into smaller places.
By
Doctors are used to diagnosing face to face and now we can’t. We are having to learn as we go
We are the waterfront against which waves of Covid-19 patients are beginning to break.
By
Editor’s Note: The night of the Great Applause, moments of revelation and the emerging political consensus
It was a moment of magical mutuality, a public coming together of a kind one seldom if ever experiences.
By
Letter of the week: Losing friends to the far right
A selection of the best letters received from our readers this week. Email letters@newstatesman.co.uk to have your thoughts voiced…
By
Leader: The pandemic year
Even if Covid-19 is eventually defeated, it will take far longer to remedy the social ills it has exposed.
By
Letter of the week: This was always the plan
A selection of the best letters received from our readers this week. Email letters@newstatesman.co.uk to have your thoughts voiced…
By
Leader: Coronavirus and the kindness of strangers
In the UK, often cast as one of Europe's most atomised societies, more than 700,000 people have volunteered for…
By
It’s easy for women to be written out of their story. So I wrote my rock ’n’ roll friend back in
Go-Betweens drummer Lindy Morrison endured the trials of being a woman in the music business in the 1980s, and her story should…
By
This England: Cheese-tippers
This column – which, though named after a line in Shakespeare’s Richard II, refers to the whole of Britain…
By
Subscriber of the week: Betsy Barker
Email emily.bootle@newstatesman.co.uk if you would like to be the New Statesman's Subscriber of the Week.
By
Gruff Rhys Q&A: “Chelsea Manning is a Welsh-American icon“
The musician discusses the late Plaid Cymru MP Gwynfor Evans, Desolation Radio and advice he received from Howard Marks.
By
Spring-cleaning the potting shed is usually a quiet task – but this year I had an unexpected guest
As I propped the hut door ajar so that my winter visitor could escape, I experienced a slight twinge…
By
The Julie Burchill affair reveals there is a sort of gutter journalism that delights in causing outrage – and I am sick of it
Like many public figures these days, Burchill’s schtick is to say what she claims is unsayable, and get paid…
By
Heston Blumenthal: “People have thought I am loopy mad”
The celebrity chef on the moon landings, Greek philosophers and getting angry with his phone.
By
From fry-ups to one-touch virtuosos: all the ways football has changed for the better
Before games, they would have steak and chips. And, of course, smoke like chimneys.
By
As a parent there is nothing I fear more than being stuck indoors, walls closing around me
There’s only one thing I want to do, and that is to be outside.
By
As my family enters lockdown, I make lists and retreat to the scheming 16th century
I embark on the new Hilary Mantel novel, The Mirror and the Light, and immediately find myself lost in it, grateful…
By
How should weeds be controlled in our green and sensitive age?
Weeds are the native vegetation exercising their birthright.
By
I’ve been preparing for this crisis for years. Allow me to offer some advice
The most important thing to do is stay in bed. Stay in bed all day. Never mind not leaving…
By NS Recommends: New books from Anthony Seldon, Marina Warner, Megan Nolan and Nikesh Shukla
Seldon's The Impossible Office?, Warner's Inventory of a Life Mislaid, Nolan's Acts of Desperation and Shukla's Brown Baby.
By The NS Poem: Horse chestnut
A new poem by Matt Howard.
By The best new children’s stories for Easter 2021
Featuring remote islands and even more remote parents.
By Covid-19 and the anxiety epidemic
Why so many of us are struggling to imagine a return to the pre-coronavirus routine, and fear life after lockdown.
By Commons Confidential: The return of Lembit Öpik
Your weekly dose of gossip from around Wesminster.
By Francis Lee’s Ammonite is a film of earthy, robust sensuality
Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan star as windswept lovers in a movie that is more than just “Portrait of…
By Being prime minister is too big a job for anybody – let alone a blundering golden-haired oaf
This year marks the 300th anniversary of the office of prime minister, so it’s probably about time we asked:…
By We are living in a world made by Xi Jinping – and Britain is desperate to find its place in it
China’s new industrial strategy has proved as much of a shock to British politics as Brexit and the triumph…
By BBC Radio 4’s Conspiracies is a deep, broad consideration of conspiratorial thinking
Phil Tinline digs through history, journalism, fiction and film to try to understand why the idea of being “in…
By We need answers to the drugs debate, but we shouldn’t look to charismatic outliers to find them
What a new book, written by a neuroscientist and heroin user, gets wrong about drug decriminalisation.
By Spring-cleaning the potting shed is usually a quiet task – but this year I had an unexpected guest
As I propped the hut door ajar so that my winter visitor could escape, I experienced a slight twinge…
By The Julie Burchill affair reveals there is a sort of gutter journalism that delights in causing outrage – and I am sick of it
Like many public figures these days, Burchill’s schtick is to say what she claims is unsayable, and get paid…
By It’s easy for women to be written out of their story. So I wrote my rock ’n’ roll friend back in
Go-Betweens drummer Lindy Morrison endured the trials of being a woman in the music business in the 1980s, and her story should…
By This England: Cheese-tippers
This column – which, though named after a line in Shakespeare’s Richard II, refers to the whole of Britain…
By It’s too early to write off Keir Starmer’s leadership – but soon he will have to address the nation
The Labour Party has never much liked being led, and in his best moments so far Starmer has threatened…
By As Germany’s restrictions drag on indefinitely, I turn to gardening to lift the ambient gloom
At one time most Germans agreed with Covid rules, but after a long winter everyone is fed up of acting responsibly.
By In lockdown, I wanted to find out: what’s in a street name?
The names we give to roads, schools and buildings are important – and nowhere is this more apparent than…
By Subscriber of the week: Betsy Barker
Email emily.bootle@newstatesman.co.uk if you would like to be the New Statesman's Subscriber of the Week.
By Editor’s Note: Salmond vs Sturgeon, in praise of the Oxford vaccine and why we must cherish Melvyn Bragg
The hatred between Salmond and Sturgeon has Shakespearean depths, and beyond their personal struggle the unity of the kingdom is at…
By Gruff Rhys Q&A: “Chelsea Manning is a Welsh-American icon“
The musician discusses the late Plaid Cymru MP Gwynfor Evans, Desolation Radio and advice he received from Howard Marks.
By Letter of the week: Losing friends to the far right
A selection of the best letters received from our readers this week. Email letters@newstatesman.co.uk to have your thoughts voiced…
By Leader: The pandemic year
Even if Covid-19 is eventually defeated, it will take far longer to remedy the social ills it has exposed.
By Lockdowns are the equivalent of a car airbag, and only bad drivers need to keep activating them
Why Boris Johnson’s insistence that the UK’s unlocking is “irreversible” is a risky one.
By Is Line of Duty gaslighting me?
Watching the new series has made me wonder if I need to up my intake of vitamin D or…
By Italy Notebook: Our life under lockdown, retracing Garibaldi’s footsteps, and resisting the talk of war
Italy is an individual shut up in a room with the urgent voice of the news bulletin.
By From fry-ups to one-touch virtuosos: all the ways football has changed for the better
Before games, they would have steak and chips. And, of course, smoke like chimneys.
By We are all frogs in a pan of water, and coronavirus reminds us that it is heating up dangerously
The pandemic is forcing us out of our routines, individually and collectively.
By Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’s Diary: Rediscovering the common good, Passover in isolation, and lessons from a gulag survivor
For perhaps the first time in 32 centuries, Jews around the world will be unable to celebrate the festival…
By Using military language to discuss coronavirus is dangerous and irresponsible – the US must stop
Language and thinking of war could be used to justify and make palatable this administration’s rejection of refugees.
By I have always appreciated London’s parks and its efforts to keep them open show the city at its best
In east London, Tower Hamlets Council has shut Victoria Park, meaning more people are being crowded into smaller places.
By I used to think I was good at being by myself, but if you’re alone now, you’re really alone
Life feels so savagely hollow to me right now that to look closely at an hour seems terrifying.
By China’s new Silk Road
How Xi Jinping will use the political opportunity provided by the coronavirus crisis to exploit a divided EU.
By First Thoughts: Herd immunity, the end of Tory philosophy and longing for the new cricket season
The advocates of herd immunity remind us why it's always worth checking the credentials of academics, and why county cricket…
By The female of the species is more healthy than the male
Physician Sharon Moalem on the role our sex chromosomes play in immunity and genetic advantage.
By Commons Confidential: The new bag ’n’ specs
Your weekly dose of gossip from around Westminster.
By Singing for a lost tomorrow: Britain’s lockdown choirs
Why political choirs are on the rise, even in the face of a pandemic.
By The Manor
A new poem by Simon Armitage.
By Netflix’s Tiger King is absurd, voyeuristic television
It’s also the most popular show on Netflix right now.
By The best new children’s books for now
What to do with bored, fractious children in lockdown conditions? Read with them.
By Why we struggle to pay attention
The trouble of focusing in a fractured world.
By Letter of the week: This was always the plan
A selection of the best letters received from our readers this week. Email letters@newstatesman.co.uk to have your thoughts voiced…
By Doctors are used to diagnosing face to face and now we can’t. We are having to learn as we go
We are the waterfront against which waves of Covid-19 patients are beginning to break.
By Editor’s Note: The night of the Great Applause, moments of revelation and the emerging political consensus
It was a moment of magical mutuality, a public coming together of a kind one seldom if ever experiences.
By Children’s films to stream in lockdown
From Trolls World Tour to Disney+.
By Leader: Coronavirus and the kindness of strangers
In the UK, often cast as one of Europe's most atomised societies, more than 700,000 people have volunteered for…
By BBC Four’s addictive new Norwegian drama, Twin
This crime series is a great imposter story.
By The Kubrick Test offers a first-hand account of the director’s working methods
Actor Kerry Shale writes and stars in a radio play about Full Metal Jacket.
By How should weeds be controlled in our green and sensitive age?
Weeds are the native vegetation exercising their birthright.
By I’ve been preparing for this crisis for years. Allow me to offer some advice
The most important thing to do is stay in bed. Stay in bed all day. Never mind not leaving…
By As my family enters lockdown, I make lists and retreat to the scheming 16th century
I embark on the new Hilary Mantel novel, The Mirror and the Light, and immediately find myself lost in it, grateful…
By As a parent there is nothing I fear more than being stuck indoors, walls closing around me
There’s only one thing I want to do, and that is to be outside.
By Heston Blumenthal: “People have thought I am loopy mad”
The celebrity chef on the moon landings, Greek philosophers and getting angry with his phone.
By