Europe’s leading magazine of books and ideas.
‘A shortening of “minshūteki kōgei” or “art for the people”, it may not have wanted heroes, but it acquired them in a number of strong and sometimes conflicting personalities.’
Rosemary Hill on the Japanese folk arts movement Mingei:
Mingei absorbed the philosophy and domestic ideal, as well as the production values, of Morris & Co and it encountered...
‘When Obioma describes wounded and dead bodies, which he does often, the temptation is to reach for arresting similes. But anything fancy here looks undignified.’
Blake Morrison on Chigozie Obioma’s novel 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘙𝘰𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘺:
The plight of the ingénu soldier is as classic a set-up for war fiction as the detective hauled from retirement is for...
‘He described the home of one host as “a bad house with a bad smell”. When others stayed for Passover, he complained that they “caused me great expense... they ate a lot.”’
Alexander Bevilacqua on the 16th-century traveller and impostor David Reubeni:
David Reubeni insisted, quoting Amos 7:14, that he was not ‘a prophet nor the son of a prophet’, nor ‘a sage or a...
We sent Andrew O’Hagan to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee and he came back with quite a story:
‘Eventually, like a dark knight returning – or a dark night everlasting – Trump appeared on the screen from the bowels of the building. Like a prize wrestler, he was followed by lights and camera into the arena, buoyed, guarded, pimped by his attendants, the music blaring and his face a rictus of childish defiance. It was his first public appearance since the shooting, and hilarity arrived, as it always will, in the shape of a Lilliputian white pillow fastened to the side of Trump’s head, over the injured ear. Swift himself might have enjoyed the drama over the Distressed Lobe.
Former congressman Gary Franks of Connecticut told me the tone of the convention was going to be “muted”. They were doing well in the polls, and it was good politics to avoid all the fire and brimstone. “The Democrats are wounded,” he said, “so let them bleed out.”
Trump had reached his enclosure. He shook hands with the doom-slinging former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, then patted Vance on the arm.
“Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!” the delegates chanted, punching the air. The crowd was delirious and ready for action.
“Now it feels like a convention,” Franks said.’
Read his piece online now at lrb.co.uk, or via the link in our comments.
‘If there’s a case to be made that moving dressage horses and volleyball teams around the world is a reasonable way to use up the carbon budget, I would struggle to make it.’
David Goldblatt on the future of the Olympics:
Every Olympics since Sydney 2000 has promised to be the ‘greenest games ever’, but the record has been dismal. ...
‘Trump’s return may represent the victory of shamelessness over accountability. Reality is no longer a thing to agree on, but a battle you’ve almost certainly lost.’
New: Andrew O'Hagan goes to the Republican convention in Wisconsin.
Trump’s great gift to the next generation was to teach them that you can say anything. Nothing need be true. You can...
‘The charge Thomson lays against war films is the obvious one: they make it all too easy to experience the thrill of battle while remaining safely out of harm’s way.’
David Trotter on David Thomson’s new survey of war films:
The ‘onset of the movies’, David Thomson argues, may well have proved the ‘most influential’ of all innovations...
‘𝘔𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘮 ran on and off between 1948 and 1964 in difficult conditions. It was impossible to write anything explicitly anticolonial without reprisal. The magazine was closely (if crudely) surveilled, and many of its writers were imprisoned. But keen readers could read between the lines.’
Alexandra Reza on a Portuguese anticolonial magazine, new on the blog:
We wouldn’t want ‘people to think we were “afraid” of its existence’, Carlos Eduardo Machado, of the...
‘Some couples spend time in separate beds, but the Beckhams went for separate continents.’
Andrew O’Hagan reviews Tom Bower’s unauthorised biography 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘉𝘦𝘤𝘬𝘩𝘢𝘮:
For a couple of decades, the Beckhams took on the mantle of national aspiration when the royals lost their cool, but too...
NEW: The LRB Podcast reports from Day 3 of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
Andrew O’Hagan and Deborah Friedell reflect on J.D. Vance’s keynote speech and dig into his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, for insights into his psychology:
The LRB Podcast brings you weekly conversations from Europe’s leading magazine of culture and ideas. Hosted by Thomas Jones and Malin Hay, with guest episodes from the LRB's US editor Adam Shatz, Meehan Crist, Rosemary Hill and more.Find the LRB's new Close Readings podcast in on Apple Podcasts or...
‘Society, Mandeville concluded, was a “most beautiful superstructure” built on the “rotten and despicable foundation” of human flaws.’
Colin Kidd on useful vices:
Society, Bernard Mandeville concluded, was a ‘most beautiful superstructure’ built on the ‘rotten and despicable...
Andrew O’Hagan and Deborah Friedell are in Milwaukee reporting on the Republican National Convention.
On Day 2, they explore the convention’s theme, ‘Make America Safe Again’, and discuss how it compares to the last RNC Andrew attended, in 2004.
Available on all podcast platforms.
Listen on Apple Podcasts here:
Show The LRB Podcast, Ep At the Republican National Convention: Day Two - Jul 17, 2024
‘Roman poets are slippery constructors of lives in verse. The Maecenas who emerges from their texts is bound up with their own literary and biographical self-positioning.’
Nora Goldschmidt on ‘Rome’s patron’, supporter of Virgil, Horace and more:
Maecenas might have acted as Augustus’ proxy but he also had a reputation for loose living. He is described by...
‘It wasn’t just that the English didn’t use linear perspective: they hardly understood the concept.’
Ulinka Rublack on the trouble with Tudor art:
‘Fine’ art wasn’t distinguished from the great range of decorative and decorated objects with which the Tudors...
‘The sense finally created by the film, by our living for a couple of hours with Gabrielle and Louis, is closer to speculative fiction than science fiction.’
Michael Wood watches Bertrand Bonello’s 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵:
In The Beast we see a lot of what Henry James called the jungle of human life, the paths in the vegetation, the escape...
far and wide
Broadcasting his reports
From somewhere else, of beauty, spring,
And Hope-renewing life,
And seasons in their solemn ring.
‘Blackbird at Dawn’, a poem by A.E. Stallings:
Vol. 46 No. 14 · 18 July 2024PoemBlackbird at DawnA.E. StallingsShare on TwitterShare on FacebookShareEmailPrint 176 wordsCentral AthensToo full of fret to sleep, I roseTo hear the grey of dawnAnd watch the shapes of things composeBefore the day turned on.A motorcycle one street overMade the morn...
‘The internal politics of the new government will involve tense stand-offs between Labour MPs with Reform at their heels and those threatened by the Greens.’
James Butler on life after the election:
Labour’s victory has appeared inevitable for so long that it’s easy to understate how rapid and total the change has...
‘As Obioma sees it, The Road to the Country isn’t ‘wartime fiction’, but ‘war fiction’, where the focus is on the people doing the fighting rather than civilians.’
Blake Morrison on Chigozie Obioma’s new novel:
The Road to the Country is a painstaking novel, and necessarily a painful one too, given the abundance of corpses and...
‘In his best moments, he’s a reverse Dorothy Parker, curving another déclaration f***e into the back of the net. “We’re definitely going to get Brooklyn christened,” he said, “but we don’t know into which religion.”’
Andrew O’Hagan on the Beckhams:
For a couple of decades, the Beckhams took on the mantle of national aspiration when the royals lost their cool, but too...
‘Paris 2024 is the cheapest games for more than a quarter of a century, and the first since Los Angeles 1984 for which so little new infrastructure has been built.’
Davidoldblatt on the decline of the Olympics:
Every Olympics since Sydney 2000 has promised to be the ‘greenest games ever’, but the record has been dismal. ...
‘𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘙𝘰𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘺 is a painstaking novel, and necessarily a painful one too, given the abundance of corpses and vultures.’
Blake Morrison on Chigozie Obioma’s novel of family, redemption and civil war:
The Road to the Country is a painstaking novel, and necessarily a painful one too, given the abundance of corpses and...
‘Nine out of ten football fans have avoided watching football in the pub, citing “getting drenched in beer” as one of the main reasons. A third of fans have experienced aggressive or intimidating situations.’
Natasha Chahal on football’s anger issues:
Corbin Shaw’s work draws on the history of flag-waving and textiles in football. Now based in East London, he was born...
‘In Rome, Reubeni was accused of wanting to convince local Sephardic conversos to return to their ancestral religion. Unconverted Italian Jews didn’t always welcome him either.’
Alexander Bevilacqua on the travels of a self-proclaimed Jewish leader:
David Reubeni insisted, quoting Amos 7:14, that he was not ‘a prophet nor the son of a prophet’, nor ‘a sage or a...
‘By shifting the focus of public debate away from the housing crisis and towards immigration, Ireland’s far right has performed a valuable service for the government parties.’
Daniel Finn on the Irish elections, from the blog:
With parties of the radical right coming first or second in a series of Western EU states in last month’s European...
‘Between 2021 and 2023 there was a 67 per cent increase in the number of reports from pharmaceutical manufacturers that a medication was in short supply.’
Gavinf Francis on the causes and consequences of recent British medicine shortages:
The UK isn’t alone in all this, but some factors peculiar to its situation have undoubtedly made things worse. In...
‘The predicate of any modern treason law, even in a constitutional monarchy, has to be a mutual obligation of loyalty between citizen and state, not a fealty owed by the individual to the crown.’
Stephen Sedley on the place of treason in English law:
The predicate of any modern treason law, even in a constitutional monarchy, has to be a mutual obligation of loyalty...
‘The question of women’s status has been central to the Taliban’s rule in Afghanistan, with more than eighty edicts curtailing their rights since the movement returned to power almost three years ago.’
Mélissa Cornet in our new issue:
The international community bears a heavy responsibility for the situation faced by Afghan women, having left in 2021...
‘A shortening of “minshūteki kōgei” or “art for the people”, it may not have wanted heroes, but it acquired them in a number of strong and sometimes conflicting personalities.’
Rosemary Hill on the Mingei movement in Japanese art:
Mingei absorbed the philosophy and domestic ideal, as well as the production values, of Morris & Co and it encountered...
‘The “onset of the movies”, David Thompson argues, may well have proved the “most influential” of all innovations in the “process” of modern warfare.’
David Trotter reviews ‘The Fatal Alliance: A Century of War on Film’:
The ‘onset of the movies’, David Thomson argues, may well have proved the ‘most influential’ of all innovations...
‘Society, Bernard Mandeville concluded, was a “most beautiful superstructure” built on the “rotten and despicable foundation” of human flaws.’
Colin Kidd on useful vices:
Bernard Mandeville saw human sociability as a consequence of society, not its cause. It seemed far from obvious what had...
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On the 2 May 1982, the Argentine battleship the 𝘎𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘉𝘦𝘭𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘰 was sunk by the British submarine HMS 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘳𝘰𝘳, killing over 300 in what would become the most controversial military action of the Falklands War. Margaret Thatcher and her government claimed the 𝘉𝘦𝘭𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘰 was an active threat, yet the diary of young Lieutenant Narendra Sethia, written on board the submarine at the time of the attack, suggested otherwise. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘦𝘭𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘰 𝘋𝘪𝘢𝘳𝘺, our new podcast series, investigates the sinking and the national scandal that followed. In the final episode, Andrew O’Hagan speaks to Sethia and other men whose lives were altered by the sinking. Listen to the full series at lrb.me/belgrano or wherever you get your podcasts
THE BELGRANO DIARY: a new six-part podcast series from the London Review of Books, presented by Andrew O'Hagan, starting 28 March. An Argentinian warship torpedoed as it was heading home. War over a forgotten remnant of the empire, victory for a beleaguered prime minister back in Britain. This is the story of the bloodiest and most controversial military action of the Falklands War; of government cover-ups and conspiracies; of whistleblowers, crusading politicians and journalists fighting for the story. Caught in the middle of it all, a young officer who kept a diary that contradicted Margaret Thatcher’s account of the sinking in every crucial detail. Listen to the trailer now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts – then follow in your podcast app to make sure you don’t miss an episode.
An Argentinian warship torpedoed as it was heading home. War over a forgotten remnant of the empire, victory for a beleaguered prime minister back in Britain. This is the story of the bloodiest and most controversial military action of the Falklands War; of government cover-ups and conspiracies; of whistleblowers, crusading politicians and journalists fighting for the story. Caught in the middle of it all, a young officer who kept a diary that contradicted Margaret Thatcher’s account of the sinking in every crucial detail. THE BELGRANO DIARY: a new six-part podcast series from the London Review of Books, presented by Andrew O'Hagan, starting 28 March. Listen to the trailer now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts – then follow in your podcast app to make sure you don’t miss an episode.
Tobias Menzies reads passages from Emily Wilson’s translation of the Iliad. Watch the full event, recorded at Conway Hall on 2 October 2023, on the LRB YouTube channel: https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/videos/lectures-events/the-iliad
What is satire? In this Close Readings podcast series, Clare Bucknell and Colin Burrow attempt, over twelve episodes, to chart a stable course through some of the most unruly, vulgar, incoherent, savage and outright hilarious works in all of English literature. Subscribe to the podcast or sign up for a full Close Readings Plus course: you’ll still get podcast access to everything but also a host of other features to transform your reading in 2024. More information here: https://londonreviewbookbox.co.uk/products/close-readings-plus-on-satire
‘It doesn’t matter how fantastic the spectacle, how awe-inspiring it’s supposed to be, there’ll be someone there with a selfie stick thinking it’s all about them.’ On the LRB podcast, Rosemary Hill looks into Vesuvius: https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/the-lrb-podcast/into-the-volcano
Agatha Christie, writes John Lanchester, ‘is the only writer by whom I’ve read more than fifty books. So – why?’ Listen to Lanchester read his piece from 2018, where he dissects Christie’s compulsive readability, and considers why, despite her brazen lack of style, she was a great experimental formalist: lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/the-lrb-podcast/the-case-of-agatha-christie
‘Octopuses,’ Amia Srinivasan writes, ‘are the closest we can come, on earth, to knowing what it might be like to encounter intelligent aliens.’ In our third summer reading, Srinivasan explores the paradoxical nature of octopus lives, and the difficulties humans have in understanding them. Listen to the full episode here: https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/the-lrb-podcast/the-sucker-the-sucker
‘Sontag was the supremo and I the obsequious gopher.’ Listen to Terry Castle read her piece about her ‘on-again, off-again, semi-friendship’ with author and theorist Susan Sontag here: lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/the-lrb-podcast/desperately-seeking-susan
Susan Sontag was a moralist and a gossip, seductive and snobbish - and a catalytic force for modern feminism. Listen to literary critic Terry Castle recall her ‘on-again, off-again, semi-friendship’ with the author and theorist here: lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/the-lrb-podcast/desperately-seeking-susan
In Ukraine, ravers are rebuilding destroyed villages through a project called Repair Together - the rhythm of techno music soundtracking the heavy labour of reconstruction. ‘It’s quickest if everyone moves to the beat.’ James Meek recently went to visit, and reports for the LRB Podcast.
What's going on in the bedroom scene in 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'? Medieval literature professor Irina Dumitrescu and historian Mary Wellesley discuss the hero's tricky predicament in their latest episode of Close Readings. Find Close Readings on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your audio.
What do we know about ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’? Historian Mary Wellesley and medieval literature professor Irina Dumitrescu tackle the mysterious and dazzling 14th-century poem in their latest Close Readings podcast. Find Close Readings on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
The British Journal of Photography
The Green House
