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
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
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 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
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
Podcast Interview
On the TLS podcast, I discussed my review of Judith Flanders' 'A Place for Everything' with Stig Abell and Thea Lenarduzzi
Podcast Interview
On The Economist's 'The Intelligence' podcast, I discussed the 150th anniversary of the Met Museum
Accident of initial letters
Review of 'A Place for Everything: The curious history of alphabetical order' by Judith Flanders
A sober sesquicentennial for the Met Museum
Though the 150th birthday celebrations will be muted, the occasion is an opportunity to reflect on a great institution’s history
"Book murderer": Why debates on the way we treat our books aren't actually about reading
Why do people cleave so strongly to one side or another of the bibliographical culture war?
Spiky and descending
David Rundle's 'The Renaissance Reform of the Book and Britain' contains several strokes of adept codicology
Nativity plays occupy a vexed place in Britain’s national psyche
Rather like horror movies, nativities have reflected Britons’ fears
Barn burner, axe, death growl, metalhead
On the art, temperament and ideology of the indexer
Animals endowed with reason
A collection of correspondence revealing the surprisingly privileged lives of 18th-century Huguenots
How nightclubs and cabarets incubated radical art
From the 1880s to the 1960s, cosmopolitan hangouts helped foster the avant-garde
Jostling atoms
How to break down the structure of a book
The variegated symbolism of gardens in art
Rarely are they neutral spaces, as a new exhibition in Berlin shows
Republic of letters
The vast publishing output of the Netherlands in the seventeenth century
A new adaptation of “Small Island” tells Britons their nation’s story
“Small Island”—adapted from a novel by Andrea Levy that was published in 2004—unpicks the complex, vicious tangle of power relations between coloniser and colonised, insider and outsider
The personal trauma that lies behind Edvard Munch’s unnerving art
He was fascinated by psychology and haunted by mental collapse
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