A Brief (And Fading) History of Literary Cohorts
Lists have always grasped for importance, but it’s still hard to escape the sense that Granta’s once-mighty ‘Best of Young British Novelists’ leaves a rapidly shrinking cultural footprint
Review: 'All the Knowledge in the World'
The enduring appeal of the hard-copy encyclopedia
Podcast Interview
On the TLS podcast, I discuss my review of Christopher de Hamel's 'Posthumous Papers of the Manuscripts Club'
Review: 'The Posthumous Papers of the Manuscripts Club'
A group biography of book collectors across time
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 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.
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'
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
Podcast Interview
On the TLS podcast, I discuss my review of Emma Smith's 'Portable Magic'
Review: 'Portable Magic'
A bibliophile critic’s powerful ‘shelfie’-portrait
Blanca Li is a choreographer unlike any other
Her latest project brings dancers and visitors together via virtual reality
Review: 'The Library: A fragile history"
A 3,000-year survey of libraries, and the personalities behind them
A new play stages excerpts from the Grenfell Tower fire inquiry
Legal transcripts are allowed to speak for themselves in a “verbatim” production
Review: 'Index, A History Of The'
A history of the book index must, in part, be a history of mighty scholarly efforts
Review: 'Burning the Books'
How books and archives are lost
How Ontroerend Goed took their confrontational drama online
The troupe is known for putting its audiences under pressure. How might that work on Zoom?
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
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