The NS Poem: chorus
A new poem by Andrew McMillan.
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Subscriber of the week: Dennis O’Brien
Please email zuzanna.lachendro@newstatesman.co.uk if you would like to be the New Statesman’s subscriber of the week.
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From Ben Lerner to Simon Heffer: new books reviewed in short
Also featuring Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang and Stay True by Hua Hsu.
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The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers redux
The 20th century’s most influential history book foresaw the collapse of the Soviet Union and rise of China. Thirty-five years…
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Saudi Arabia’s crown prince understands the modern world. His Western suitors do not
Mohammed bin Salman resembles no one so much as the prince from Machiavelli’s manual of statecraft.
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How the MeToo backlash helped Russell Brand
Also this week: Bring on by-election season, and my predictions for Strictly Come Dancing.
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The rise and fall of Russell Brand
The decadent Britain of the 2000s was the perfect place for the comedian-cum-pseudo intellectual to thrive.
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Frans Hals and the will to life
Where Rembrandt painted introspection, the Haarlem portraitist showed people as social creatures.
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In power, Labour will have to act like a wartime cabinet
Would an “activist” Starmer government have what it takes to rebuild Britain’s collapsing infrastructure?
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Mikhaila Peterson’s life at the molten core of the culture wars
At the key moments in the drama of Jordan Peterson, his daughter is usually there.
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Russell Brand’s career was defined by misogyny – and audiences delighted in it
What a comedian chooses to joke about is revealing – and has a bearing on the world at large.
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The progressive dilemma
The anxieties and insecurities of the present moment are a formidable challenge for the centre left – in Britain and…
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Brexit has made the EU less liberal and open
Brussels’ embrace of protectionism is a problem for those who yearn for closer ties with Europe.
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Coco Chanel’s second coming
The V&A’s exhibition focuses on the designer’s clothes – with little attention given to her equally spectacular life.
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Why we should be worried by the new Covid wave
With the emergence of a highly mutated Omicron variant, policies for controlling the virus deserve our renewed attention.
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Laura Kuenssberg’s State of Chaos: a parade of strange and idiotic people
Watching this series about British politicians , you wonder how they made it to the cabinet – or out of…
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Who makes history?
A study of postwar British politics overstates the influence of its leading personalities.
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Bernie Taupin: good lyricist, bad writer
The songs he wrote with Elton John may be works of art. His bloated memoir is not.
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Lorrie Moore’s Q&A: “US gun regulation should be a public health policy”
The author and critic on epidemiology, the joy of wine and coffee, and the soul of Abraham Lincoln.
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My latest ailment is Mild Exasperation With Everything
Is there a cure? Perhaps buying nine of the 12 volumes of the Scott Moncrieff translation of Proust will help.
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