George Eliot’s marriage plot
In her work, the novelist developed a radical philosophy of relationships. In her life, she put it into practice.
ByMagazine
How Christopher Wren built Britain
He became the nation’s greatest architect – but studied astronomy and anatomy first. To Wren, building was a three-dimensional science.
By
Joan Bakewell: “I can live with death – how odd”
As the broadcaster approaches 90, she reflects on her mother, the media and “her version” of her affair with Harold…
By
The IRA’s blank assassin
The Brighton bomb killed five people but failed to hit its target, Margaret Thatcher.
By
The undoing of Nicola Sturgeon
The SNP reached its electoral zenith under the First Minister but she leaves office humbled by Westminster and alienated from…
By
Maggie O’Farrell’s Q&A: “If I wasn’t a writer I would be irritable and thwarted”
The author and Women’s Prize winner on her hero Tove Jansson, Aneurin Bevan and her elderly cat.
By
I have little love for Boris Johnson and am mortified to realise we have traits in common
Amid the greased piglet’s bluster, bloviating and shameless evasions, I see something terribly familiar.
By
Where are all the good books on sex?
Polly Barton’s “oral history” of porn shows the myopia of cultural criticism drawn from personal experience. We desperately need a…
By
The BBC’s new Great Expectations is so bad it should be illegal
Steven Knight’s crass, sexed-up version of the novel strips it of all its humour and tenderness. Does he think he’s…
By
A childlike wonder at the world’s everyday beauty is best left to grown-ups
I feel the more experience we have of the world – not less – the more deeply we feel what…
By
From Skin & Blister
A new poem by Blake Morrison.
By
The limits of humanism
How do we reconcile our capacity for good and evil? Humanist thinking does not have all the answers.
By
Going native
How Matthew Goodwin became part of the right-populist movement he once sought to explain.
By
God’s Creatures is a powerful portrait of a toxic mother-son relationship
Paul Mescal and Emily Watson bring inner darkness to this story of trauma in a tiny Irish town.
By
Football was never a truly amateur game, but now even the supporting cast are raking it in
Tottenham Hotspur’s Daniel Levy currently tops the lot with a salary of £3.3m. Well done Daniel, and without kicking a…
By
Subscriber of the week: Richard Hemmings
Please email peter.williams@newstatesman.co.uk if you would like to be the New Statesman’s subscriber of the week.
By
Greying MPs and ministers hit the pension jackpot following Jeremy Hunt’s Budget
Your weekly dose of gossip from around Westminster.
By
The left can win and forge a new settlement – but only if it repairs the trust we have lost
Research reveals a strong public appetite for progressive ideas. But we cannot flourish in an environment of mutual intolerance.
By
Despite the high risk, crypto offers a vision of a more open, creative and free internet
The industry is preoccupied with money-making, but the potential of shared computing could go far beyond finance.
By
Like zombies, eurozone states are lurching towards their next financial emergency
A slow-burning crisis in which insolvent banks prop up insolvent businesses is a dangerous – and very real – possibility.
By