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SubscriptionsCategory: Literature
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The Upside Down: Why We Should Raise a Glass to the Real Father Christmas
John Mitchinson explores the attributes of the character that long pre-dates ‘Santa Claus’
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The Upside Down: Saint Cuthbert – Wonder Worker
John Mitchinson reflects on why the life of Saint Cuthbert still has important things to teach us
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The Upside Down: Operation Shylock
John Mitchinson on why Shakespeare’s most problematic play still has plenty to teach us
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The Upside Down: The 18th Century’s Ultimate #BookToker
John Mitchinson explores what the novelist behind a 1759 masterpiece can teach us about the importance of marketing as a publisher
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Professors, Power and Projection: the Case of Matthew Goodwin
Martin Shaw looks at Goodwin’s new book and its claims that Britain is run by a ‘woke’ new elite
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‘The Strangers’ Case? The Government’s Approach to Human Dignity, Asylum Seekers and a Lesson from Shakespeare’
We must all examine our values and actions in relation to vulnerable populations, writes Iain Overton
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‘Hanif Kureishi and the Touch of Forced Intimacy’
Stefano Goodman explains how impairment can lead to sudden physical reliance on strangers – and how this shapes our personalities
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‘The Roald Dahl Affair is a Lesson in the Culture War of Nostalgia’
If voters can’t be scared by the threat of the ‘woke left’ devaluing their house – they might be scared by it devaluing their childhood, writes Graham Williamson
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‘Kipling Out, Hemingway In? Why the Dahl Edits Fails on Diversity’
The decision to alter Roald Dahl’s texts to make them more inclusive misses the mark – and ignores wider failures of diversity in children’s publishing, writes Sian Norris
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‘Who’s Virginia Woolf Afraid Of?’
Stephen Unwin explores how the famed author’s views about disability were typical of a growing intellectual endorsement of the dangerous ideology of eugenics in the early 20th century
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The Upside Down: Why We Still Celebrate Christmas with Dickens
John Mitchinson explores the enduring relevance of the “little Christmas book” the author penned in 1843
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The Upside Down: Men Are From Earth, So Are Women
John Mitchinson explores how our brains reflect our lives not our genitals John Gray’s Men are from Mars, Women are From Venus was the highest-selling non-fiction title of the 1990s. With sales of over 15 million copies across 40 languages, it created its own publishing ecosystem: Why Men Don’t Listen and Women Can’t Read Maps;…
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‘I Hope the Rise of Sweden’s Right Won’t Normalise Aggression Against Black Women’
Novelist and photographer Lola Akinmade Åkerström talks to Sian Norris about the rise of Sweden’s far-right, and the experiences of women of colour in the Nordic country
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The Shock of the Fatwa – What it was Like Back Then
Anthony Barnett remembers the political and social circumstances around the response to Salman Rushdie’s ‘The Satanic Verses’
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Salman Rushdie: the Offence Defence is Not Enough
Rushdie has consistently argued that people should not be harmed for the words they write. But, as Graham Williamson points out, this is not the same thing as believing words are harmless.
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‘Refugees and Migrants Do Not Come From a Different World’
Malka Al-Haddad introduces a new magazine aiming to challenge stereotypes about refugees and migrants by showcasing their writing and editing and building a ‘bridge’ of understanding
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The Rejection of Disabled Creativity – Enough Is Enough
Penny Pepper explores the failure of the diversity and inclusion trope for disabled people with a variety of stories to tell
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The History Racket: Blowing the Whistle on the Official Versions and Perversions of the Past
Peter Jukes and Hardeep Matharu explore the real threats to history – emanating not from ‘wokeists’ intent on rewriting the past but an establishment elite regularly burying inconvenient truths to maintain Britain’s mythic narratives
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Age is a Feminist Issue in the Arts
The announcement of a new writing prize for under-35s raises questions about how age limits create barriers for women writers, says Joanna Walsh
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A Tale Told by an Idiot: Exclusive Extracts from Boris Johnson’s Book on Shakespeare
Otto English has procured an advanced copy of the Prime Minister’s book on the Great Bard
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Infurno: May Episode – Minor Tour in the Labyrinth
Episode Three of Martin Rowson’s underworld epic, set in the bowels of Number 10 Downing Street. For Episode Four, subscribe to the June Digital Edition now
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Infurno: April Episode – Killer Churchill Statues
Episode Two of Martin Rowson’s underworld epic set in the bowels of Number 10 Downing Street. For Episode Three subscribe to the May Digital Edition Now
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Infurno: March Episode – Dead Cats Society
An epic underworld adventure for our times, Martin Rowson launches a film noir detective thriller starring Pete the Dog that plunges right through the catflap of contemporary politics
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The Upside Down: The Cobbett Conundrum
John Mitchinson explores the problematic legacy of one of the founding fathers of English radicalism
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THE UPSIDE DOWN: Playing the Game – How Sport Can Set Us Free
John Mitchinson explores the connection between liberty and fair play
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The Upside Down: Long Live the Elders! The Exemplary Life of Barry Lopez
John Mitchinson returns with his reflections on the final book of the late great American author and what it reveals about the demands on humans to evolve ethically in order to meet the many challenges on the horizon
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‘Strongmen’: How a Crisis in Masculinity Paved the Way for Fascism
Heidi Siegmund Cuda speaks to the historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat about the new global rise in authoritarianism and why the recent defeat of Donald Trump in the US Presidential Election was so significant
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‘You See What People Can Do to Other People, People they Lived Side-By-Side With’: Ending the Silence on Partition and Empire
As discussions of Empire and Britain’s imperial history have come to the forefront in 2020, Hardeep Matharu speaks to BBC journalist and author Kavita Puri to explore what she learnt from those who lived through the end of the colonial project in India about divisions tearing societies apart for her book ‘Partition Voices’
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Uprising to Rising Up: The Education of Alex Wheatle
Bryan Knight speaks to Alex Wheatle, whose life was recently brought to television screens by Steve McQueen in the BBC’s Small Axe series
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The Upside Down: Why the Poetry of Claudia Rankine is Essential Reading for Right Now
John Mitchinson considers how the author combines the integrity of an investigative journalist with a rhetorical urgency in a timely exploration of whiteness
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Tufton Street and News International Actions Show that Extinction Rebellion is Evolving
Stephen Colegrave talks to co-founder of the Writer’s Rebel group, Jessica Townsend, about their shifting strategy and where XR is heading next Jessica Townsend joined Extinction Rebellion (XR) early on and was present at the declaration and the first rebellion. Originally, she didn’t intend to become an environmental activist but was writing her first novel…
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In the Search for Truth, We Have to Take Off Our Masks
Reverend Joe Haward considers what the pursuit of truth really involves and how knowledge of this is being manipulated by our politicians
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The Mainstream Media Needs to Give Learning Disabled People their Own Voice
Saba Salman calls on the mainstream media to more accurately reflect the lives of those with learning disabilities and explains how her new book of essays, written by the learning disabled, aims to change the narrative.
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The Year of Living Distantly: Paranoia in Cornwall
Alex Wade on how his plans to move abroad were stymied by the pandemic, and how an abandoned cottage and a missing book delivery revealed the rupture in time.
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Hymns to the Silence: Music and Solace in a Time of Crisis
The composer Howard Goodall looks at how music has helped to express, escape and mourn previous traumas, and provides his own playlist to pass the pandemic.
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THE UPSIDE DOWN: The Eloquence of Saying Nothing
John Mitchinson explores how being quiet and listening might help us to adjust to the isolation imposed on us by the Coronavirus – and beyond.
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Lockdown with Chris Sullivan: Volume One
Looking for an album, film or book to make our new Coronavirus reality more bearable? Why not start here…
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The UPSIDE DOWN: This Too Shall Pass – What Defoe’s Plague Journal Can Still Teach Us
As the Coronavirus pandemic changes all of our lives, John Mitchinson reflects on how the observations of humanity revealed in such moments of crisis transcend time and place.
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‘Labelled a Black Villain’: Routine Racism and Injustice in Britain
Crime reporter Duncan Campbell shares his thoughts on a republished memoir by Trevor Hercules on life before, in and after prison.
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THE UPSIDE DOWN: Raising Hell – The Long Afterlife of William Blake
John Mitchinson explores the lasting resonance of the works of the English poet and artist who attracted little acclaim during his lifetime.
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THE UPSIDE DOWN: Mongrel Tongue – Is English Really So Special?
John Mitchinson on why we should celebrate the success of the flexibility of the English language which enables its richness.
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THE IDEA OF EUROPE: A True Story of British Accession
In Part One of his romantic misadventures after the first Brexit Referendum, Peter Jukes and his best friend discover a mysterious dark Continent.
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We are now Living in ‘American Psycho’
Bonnie Greer finds clarity about the desecration of US society under Donald Trump in the premise of Brett Easton Ellis’ famous 1991 novel.
