Samuel Pepys’s diary of a somebody
Kate Loveman’s history of a national treasure preserves Pepys’s charm while revealing a discomfiting historical world.
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Rowan Williams
Rowan Williams is former Archbishop of Canterbury from 2002 to 2012, and a contributing writer to the New Statesman.
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The fall of a Stuart spin doctor
The Duke of Buckingham served King James I better as a lover than a statesman – and his blunders…
ByWhat the Tories did to us
The essay collection The Conservative Effect explores how theatrical short-termism and specious rhetoric defined 14 years of mis-rule.
ByShakespeare’s guide to living
A Freudian reading of the comedies and tragedies reveals how we can embrace life’s failures and reversals.
ByWhat the Greeks teach us about suicide
The great tragedians’ writings on suffering, stigma and survival can help guide our own struggles with assisted dying.
ByByron’s war on tranquillity
A new biography reveals how the poet’s life of extremes was echoed by the hyperactive irony of his work.
ByLexicon of loss
The history of the elegy reveals how the poetry of grief has the power to trouble, console and unite.
ByAnne Boleyn’s blunders
A new history shows how the clever, ambitious queen was no match for the post-truth politics of Henry VIII’s…
ByHomer’s history of violence
Emily Wilson’s translation of the Iliad reveals a bleak vision of the self-interest and savagery of humankind.
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