Times Literary Supplement • 6th January 2023 Review: 'All the Knowledge in the World' The enduring appeal of the hard-copy encyclopedia
Times Literary Supplement • 10th November 2022 Podcast Interview On the TLS podcast, I discuss my review of Christopher de Hamel's 'Posthumous Papers of the Manuscripts Club'
Times Literary Supplement • 8th November 2022 Review: 'The Posthumous Papers of the Manuscripts Club' A group biography of book collectors across time
The Telegraph • 24th August 2022 Inside the strange, paranoid world of John McAfee Was the software developer, now subject of a Netflix documentary, a gifted technologist or a snake-oil salesman – or both?
The Fence • 12th August 2022 The Ideas Man For a few months, I’ve been hearing from people - mostly young, bright graduates desperate for a job in the arts - who worked at the Institute of Art and Ideas.
Modern Language Review • 29th July 2022 Review: 'Compassion in Early Modern Literature and Culture' 'There is nothing simple about compassion', the late Lauren Berlant wrote, 'apart from the desire to be taken as simple'
Psyche • 29th June 2022 Trashy media and the brain Readerly feelings tell us less about immutable states of mind, and more about the relative status of different sorts of cultural product at different times
Times Literary Supplement • 28th April 2022 Podcast Interview On the TLS podcast, I discuss my review of Emma Smith's 'Portable Magic'
Times Literary Supplement • 28th April 2022 Review: 'Portable Magic' A bibliophile critic’s powerful ‘shelfie’-portrait
The Economist • 12th April 2022 Blanca Li is a choreographer unlike any other Her latest project brings dancers and visitors together via virtual reality
Times Literary Supplement • 5th November 2021 Review: 'The Library: A fragile history" A 3,000-year survey of libraries, and the personalities behind them
The Economist • 21st October 2021 A new play stages excerpts from the Grenfell Tower fire inquiry Legal transcripts are allowed to speak for themselves in a “verbatim” production
Times Literary Supplement • 10th September 2021 Review: 'Index, A History Of The' A history of the book index must, in part, be a history of mighty scholarly efforts
Times Literary Supplement • 21st May 2021 Review: 'Burning the Books' How books and archives are lost
The Economist • 6th May 2021 How Ontroerend Goed took their confrontational drama online The troupe is known for putting its audiences under pressure. How might that work on Zoom?
Times Literary Supplement • 6th April 2021 Review: 'Learning Through Images in the Italian Renaissance' This thoroughly researched study of illustrated pedagogical manuscripts uncovers a scholarly diet that was diverse, popular and above all practical
The Observer • 14th March 2021 Observer/Anthony Burgess Prize: 'The Duchess of Malfi' Review In this runner-up review, James Waddell describes the surprisingly visceral experience of watching the Almeida’s 2019 production of Webster’s great revenge tragedy online
Elephant • 23rd February 2021 The Unexpected Solace of Art Books Under Lockdown With many museums around the world closed, lavishly illustrated books can offer a tangible experience of art that doesn’t involve leaving the house.
The Economist • 13th January 2021 The Royal Court takes inspiration from the Federal Theatre Project Lessons from an artistic programme set up during the Depression are being applied at a British playhouse
The Economist • 17th December 2020 Saki was one of the greatest satirists of Christmas Born 150 years ago, Saki was a master of social observation who sided with life’s rebels