Mark Fisher
A journey towards faith
A novel set during the Algerian war has chilling relevance to what is happening in the Middle East today
Notes from the departure lounge
Robert McCrum’s Every Third Thought asks: how, when, and where are we going after death?
Romantic Revolutionary
James Hamilton’s biography of Thomas Gainsborough offers a portrait not just of the artist but also of the worlds he moved through
Poetry Prospers
The anthology Hwaet! proves poetry is alive and thriving at the Ledbury Poetry Festival
The Value Of Victoria
Paula Bartley’s biography of Queen Victoria, based on the monarch’s letters and journals, brings out surprising contradictions
Where The White Stuff Came From
Edmund De Waal’s personal history of porcelain
Inside The Club
Conviviality and conversation at a bastion of the Establishment
Carrying water for freedom
Hong Kong’s protestors are brave and, so far, successful. The Chinese Communist Party leadership must be kicking itself
Discussions with a stone wall
Britain’s main gay rights organisation is risking its own future by adopting gender self-ID as its new cause
In the heartlands of white-flag academia
When I tried to find out why my pro-Brexit article was turned down I was rebuffed — showing the intellectual conformism of universities