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SubscriptionsSection: Culture
History, music, cooking, travel, books, theatre, film – but also with an eye on the ‘culture wars’, nationalism and identity.
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We Should Bury the Likes of Lord Bell Not Praise Them
Iain Overton on the death of advertising tycoon Lord Timothy Bell, an advisor to Margaret Thatcher and co-founder of the controversial firm Bell Pottinger.
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What Can We Create with ‘All That’s Left’?
Caroline Davidson explores the philosophical underpinnings of an installation by Peter Fluck and Tony Myatt showcasing a beloved tree that was cut down.
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Byline Times at Byline Festival
Our sister organisation Byline Festival will be kicking off tomorrow, with four days of thought-provoking talks, workshops and performances.
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SPITTING BACK: Today’s Politicians? ‘It’s Difficult to Make a Puppet of a Puppet’
Peter Fluck made his name as the co-creator of Spitting Image. Now an artist, he says the current crop of politicians do a good job of satirising themselves.
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Review of the Week by Odeon of Death: The Trouble with Jeffrey
A body is found in a sleepy New England town, but nobody knows whodunnit, in Hitchcock’s classic black comedy
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High-End Elitism: How Sustainable Fashion is Out of Reach for Most Consumers
With the average shopper unable to afford sustainable options from designer brands, what is the solution?
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Lives Left in Stone: Cologne’s Eternal Cathedral
Will Cologne’s cathedral, which was centuries in the making, ever be considered to be truly ‘finished’? Maybe nothing we build ever is.
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Film Review of the Week: Mississippi Gurning
The Odeon of Death takes a look at the week’s events through the medium of cinema.
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Pessimism is for Lightweights: Episode 10 – No Room for Fear
Poet Salena Godden reflects on the life and passing of the inspirational Toni Morrison.
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Life on the Street: 24 Hours in Manchester – NIGHT & MORNING
Byline Times’ regular cartoonist, who has worked with homeless people and experienced periods of homelessness himself, continues his picture essay on Manchester from street level.
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Art and Disaster: ‘The Delft Thunderclap’
Mike Stuchbery on how terrible moments of devastation can be overcome with creativity and vision.
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MOOD-BASED TRAVEL: The Pleasures of Porto
In the latest in his series exploring how to experience travelling as an antidote to your mood, Kyle Taylor recounts the pleasures of Porto.
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Odeon of Death Review of the Week: The Long Good Friday Agreement
The Odeon of Death takes a look at the week’s events through the medium of cinema.
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The Art of Dying – A Medieval Blockbuster for Terrible Times
Mike Stuchbery on reading one of the first printed bestsellers – a book on how to die properly – from his hospital bed.
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The Second Summer of Love – North v South?
DJ and writer Chris Sullivan on the debate about where Rave culture first took hold in Britain.
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‘The Great Hack’: The Fightback Begins in the Brexit-Trump Culture Wars
Sheridan Flynn on the new Netflix documentary following Carole Cadwalladr’s ongoing mission for the truth about how our data is being weaponised to change the world.
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Odeon of Death Review of the Week: Doctor Who – The Out of Time Lord
The Odeon of Death takes a look at the week’s events through the medium of cinema.
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Odeon of Death Special Review: The Oh, Man
The Odeon of Death with a special look the day’s events through the medium of cinema.
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Life on the Street: 24 Hours in Manchester – ‘EVENING’
Byline Times’ regular cartoonist Slymoon, who has worked with homeless people and experienced periods of homelessness himself, starts his picture essay on Manchester from street level.
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THE UPSIDE DOWN: Not The Normal Norfolk – The Original Opioid Crisis
John Mitchinson on the warm haze of opioid bliss – for good and for ill – experienced by the Victorians. If there ever was a golden age for hard drug use, it was the Victorian era. The widespread use of laudanum (opium dissolved in alcohol) had first been encouraged by the greatest English doctor of…
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Odeon of Death Review of the Week: Fat Cats (2019)
The Odeon of Death takes a look at the week’s events through the medium of cinema. Fat Cats 2019 Big screen adaptation of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical starring Jacob Rees-Moggy, Nadhim Meowey, and Mr Piffle-Paffle, pictured here performing his showtune “I’ve done you up like a kipper (and now I’m going to eat you).”…
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Odeon of Death Review of the Week: Terminator 8
The Odeon of Death takes a look at the week’s events through the medium of cinema.
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Magnificent Desolation – The Journey to the Moon
Otto English on the beauty in that brief moment on 20 July 1969 when the human race came together and marvelled silently at the great things we can do.
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Jacob Rees-Mogg and the Brexiters’ Persistent Myths of Empire
Britain has not really faced up to losing an empire and the unresolved cost is playing out through the traumas of Brexit.
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WORD OF THE WEEK: corbie-messenger
(n.) a messenger who arrives too late to be of use, or not at all
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Between Two Worlds: The Secrets of the Shaman of Bad Dürrenberg
On a recent trip to Germany, Mike Stuchbery came across the remains of a woman who lived some 8,500 years ago – astonishing, not only for the impressive manner in which she was buried, but the secrets that her bones contained.
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PESSIMISM IS FOR LIGHTWEIGHTS: Celebrating Others
Salena Godden with an excerpt from the new book Others, published by Unbound, about her sister Jo-Ann who has Williams Syndrome. Others is published this week. This tremendous anthology celebrates how words can take us out of the selves we inhabit and show us the world as others see it. Fiction writers and poets make…
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Odeon of Death Review of the Week: Old Mr Corbyn’s Fudge Shop
The Odeon of Death takes a look at the week’s events through the medium of cinema.
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How Englishness was Created – A Culture, Not an Ethnicity
The Count of the Saxon Shore continues exploring the origins Englishness through the ‘game of thrones’ of seven kingdoms and the ‘Norway plus’ model of the time.
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‘THE BRINK’: Steve Bannon Doc is Scariest Movie of the Summer
Alison Klayman’s new documentary follows the right-wing media executive and one-time Trump confidante Steve Bannon on his mission to create a populist US and Europe.
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MOOD-BASED TRAVEL: Havana Ooh Na Na
In the latest in his series exploring how to experience travelling as a antidote to your mood, Kyle Taylor sets out the hotspots of Havana.
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Living with Attention Deficit Disorder
Mike Stuchbery on his recent ADD diagnosis and why this has provided the breakthrough he needed.
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Brexit and Empire: Nostalgia for a Nation that Never Was is Driving Britain over a Cliff
With the likely next Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, praising Britain today as the ‘Greatest Place on Earth’ all the unlearned lessons of Empire are coming back to haunt us.
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WORD OF THE WEEK: involution
(n.) the act of turning round or back; degeneration, the act of making worse
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DIY Punk Spirit – how Poetry is Thriving while Politics is in Chaos
Ahead of their appearance at the Byline Festival, Salena Godden introduces an interview with the poet Matt Abbott about the Nymphs & Thugs poetry record label and his co-hosting of LIVEwire.
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Spiderman – How to Make a Blockbuster in the Netflix Era
Chris Sullivan hails a new addition to the Marvel franchise, that marvels with its spectacle when all else fails.
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The Odeon of Death Review of the Week: Being There
The Odeon of Death takes a look at the week’s events through the medium of cinema.
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Divide and Rule: ‘Colonial Mindsets Fuelling Islamophobia and Racism’
Hardeep Matharu speaks to Tahir Butt, a Muslim campaigner who spent nearly 30 years in the police, about his experience of racism and identity.
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Love Island and Number Ten – a Beauty Contest for Toxic Masculinity
Salena Godden writes the sixth episode of Pessimism for Lightweights on Bravery in Peckham, Dystopia on Love Island and Comfort in Books
