The BBC podcast series A Very British Cult is dark and gripping
This deep dive into a supposed life-coaching organisation is an explosive listen. I won’t spoil the ending.
ByMagazine
Subscriber of the week: Anita Pollack
Write to letters@newstatesman.co.uk to have your thoughts voiced in the New Statesman magazine.
By
Monica Macias: “I wanted to become a pianist. Kim Il Sung said no”
The author – and daughter of Equatorial Guinea’s former dictator Francisco Macías Nguema – on her childhood spent in exile…
By
Liz Truss becomes the latest Tory MP to fancy a presenting gig on GB News
Your weekly dose of gossip from around Westminster.
By
The EU cannot afford to take sides in the contest between the US and China
Europe’s economy, dependent on global supply chains, is not built for Cold War-style relations.
By
Spain’s left coalition defied expectations. Can its leader, Pedro Sánchez, win again?
The government is far from perfect, but the PM has improved the country’s economic prospects and international clout.
By
Sigrid Rausing’s Diary: Why it’s time to step down at Granta, the sound of music, and the art of making lists
Our Best of Young British Novelists list proved that publishing is more permeable, and more transformative, than we imagine.
By
This England: High foot traffic
This column – which, though named after a line in Shakespeare’s “Richard II”, refers to the whole of Britain –…
By
Jack Monroe: “I’m still working through my teenage rebellion”
The food writer and campaigner on her hero parents and belting out “Shout” by Lulu to combat nerves.
By
The world according to Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin
China and Russia are united in an epic struggle against the West – and their leaders seek nothing less than…
By
The new Tory tribes
Rishi Sunak’s MPs are already competing to define the party’s purpose and shape its future.
By
Rachel de Souza: “Big Tech knows it harms children – it should get serious”
The children’s commissioner on social media, porn and the mental health crisis in schools.
By
Anatomy of a romantic hero
Curtis Sittenfeld’s Romantic Comedy presents a new male ideal: famous, feminist, fantastically handsome – and blind to your every flaw.
By
My life, and finances, are summed up by my attempts to mash a potato with a fork
It was a uniquely dispiriting moment in a life rich with them, and my suspicion is that I am living…
By
The cult of Sigmund Freud
The inventor of psychoanalysis attracted failed scientists and sexual opportunists, and built his legacy upon myth and error.
By
From Max Porter to Xiaolu Guo: new books reviewed in short
Also featuring All the Houses I’ve Ever Lived In by Kieran Yates and Uproar by Alice Loxton.
By
ITV’s Raoul Moat drama is sickening, cynical TV
The pain of Moat’s victims has been callously put aside, all to make another middling series with a middling cast.…
By
Rachmaninoff’s enduring melodies
In his lifetime, his music was an escape from modernity – 150 years after his birth, the Russian composer bridges…
By
The dark world of anorexia
Hadley Freeman’s Good Girls is ruthless and revealing on her illness but too soft on our culture’s damaging obsession with…
By
The NS Poem: A Standstill
A new poem by Andrew Motion.
By