Arts & Culture: The New Criterion – January 2025
Category Archives: Culture
The New York Times Magazine – Dec. 8, 2024
THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (December 14 2024): The 12.15.24 issue features ‘The Silence of Alice Munro’…
What Alice Munro Knew
The Nobel-winning author’s husband was a pedophile who targeted her daughter and other children. Why did she stay silent?
Opioids Ravaged a Kentucky Town. Then Rehab Became Its Business.
In Louisa, an unbearable social crisis has become the main source of economic opportunity.
Could This Tiny School Break Down the Wall Between Church and State?
Officials in Oklahoma are laying the groundwork to push Christianity into public schools.
Politics: The Guardian Weekly-December 13, 2024
The Guardian Weekly (December 11, 2024): The new issue features The fall of Syria’s brutal dictatorship. Plus The best books of 2024.
Not even the most optimistic of rebels could have predicted the rapid collapse, last weekend, of the Assad dynasty that ruled Syria with an iron fist for more than 50 years. Yet while there was relief and joy both inside Syria and among the nation’s vast displaced diaspora, it was also accompanied by apprehension over what might come next.
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Spotlight | Russia and Ukraine wait warily for Trump transition
The idea of the US president-election as a saviour for Ukraine, as unlikely as it may seem, holds an appeal for an exhausted nation without a clear path to victory. Shaun Walker and Pjotr Sauer report
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Environment | The jailed anti-whaler defiant in face of extradition threat
Capt Paul Watson talks to Daniel Boffey about his arrest on behalf of the Japanese government, his ‘interesting’ Greenland prison, and separation from his children
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Feature | The growing threat of firearms that can be made at home
One far-right cell wanted to use 3D-printed guns to cause ‘maximum confusion and fear’ on the streets of Finland. Could the police intercept them in time? By Samira Shackle
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Opinion | Farage is lying in wait. Britain can’t afford for Starmer to fail
It is not enough for the Labour leader’s ‘milestones’ to be achieved. Voters must feel the improvement in their daily lives, says Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland
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Culture | The best books of 2024
From a radical retelling of Huckleberry Finn to Al Pacino’s autobiography, our critics round up their favourite reads of the year
Country Life Magazine – December 18, 2024 Preview
Country Life Magazine (December 10, 2024): The latest issue features ‘The Christmas Double Issue’…
A story of homeliness
The Revd Dr Colin Heber-Percy considers the Christmas story told in familiar rituals
Earth stood hard as iron
Frost casts a garden’s structure into sharp relief. Tiffany Daneff enters a sparkling world
The Very Revd Jo Kelly-Moore’s favourite painting
The Dean of St Albans chooses a canvas full of uplifting light for dark times
The legacy
Kate Green pays tribute to Dame Ninette de Valois, the ‘godmother of ballet’
Where Britain’s first saint lies
In the first of two articles, John Goodall traces the saintly history of the ancient abbey church of St Albans, Hertfordshire
Love to hear the robin go tweet, tweet, tweet
The feisty robin is the undisputed avian king of Christmas. Mark Cocker wonders why
It’s a most wonderful time of the year
From weaving wreaths to corralling choristers, the work is ramping up for country people, who talk to Kate Green and Paula Lester
Baby, it’s gold outside
Catriona Gray meets the artists capturing Nature’s beauty in gold
Silence is golden
Stop and listen to Nature’s voice, urges John Lewis-Stempel
Each year you bring to us delight
Hanging treasured decorations is all part of the magic. Matthew Dennison opens the bauble box
Look out! Look out! Jack Frost is about
Deborah Nicholls-Lee dares to unveil the mysterious figure
The Editor’s Christmas quiz
Take on our quizmaster — and, more importantly, your family and friends
Anyone for indoor cricket?
Melanie Cable-Alexander buckles up for riotous country-house-corridor games
No Risk, no reward
Harry Pearson takes over the world with the classic board game
Make ’em laugh
Jonathan Self chortles at British comedy
The Christmas Story: ‘Bring me flesh and bring me wine’
The spirit of Christmas works its magic on a curmudgeonly baronet in Kate Green’s tale
Interiors
Natural scents win for Arabella Youens
While shepherds watched their flocks
The sheep and its patient guardians have long delighted artists, finds Michael Prodger
Luxury
Knitting, diamonds and Giles Coren’s treats
It takes a village
Is the perfect rural habitation real, wonders John Lewis-Stempel
Don’t mince your words
Modern mince pies are but pale shadows of the past, believes Neil Buttery
You’re one hot roast potato
Who can resist a roastie? Not Emma Hughes, nor anyone else in their right mind
Kitchen garden cook
Melanie Johnson builds a gingerbread house
That’ll do, pig
Glazed and succulent, the Christmas ham is the king of the feast for Tom Parker Bowles
Lay, lady, lay
Give wine time to age, urges Harry Eyres
Crown Him with many crowns
John Lewis-Stempel gathers in the holly, once divine diadem, now a cow’s Christmas feast
The straw that broke the camel’s back
Labour’s family-farm tax will mean ruin for a beleaguered sector, says Minette Batters
‘Growing old is mandatory, but growing up is optional’
Sam Leith opens the well-worn covers of the childhood books we will always cherish
Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee
From frogs to rat armies, the natural world has inspired countless ballets. Laura Parker straps on her pointe shoes for the bunny hop
Highlights, delights and lowlights
Michael Billington awards his accolades to the stars — and the scourges — of the stage
Spectres of the feast
Operas with food and wine may be rousing, but there are perils, warns Henrietta Bredin
Unputdownable: the page turners of 2024
Country Life reviewers select their top books
Preview: The New Yorker Magazine – Dec. 16, 2024
President Emmanuel Macron Has Plunged France into Chaos
Lawmakers have toppled the government for the first time since 1962. How did we get here? By Lauren Collins
What Will Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy Accomplish with Doge?
Two political newcomers have arrived to slash big government, but so far the project seems less revolutionary than advertised.
The New York Times Magazine – Dec. 8, 2024
THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (December 7 2024): The 12.8.24 Issue features William Langewiesche on the secret Pentagon war game how nuclear escalation spirals out of control; Daniel Bergner on a mysterious gap in psychosis rates; Alexis Okeowo on an endless war in Ethiopia; and more.
The Secret Pentagon War Game That Offers a Stark Warning for Our Times
The devastating outcome of the 1983 game reveals that nuclear escalation inevitably spirals out of control.
The Interview: Tilda Swinton Would Like a Word With Trump About His Mother
The Academy Award-winning actress discusses her lifelong quest for connection, humanity’s innate goodness and the point of being alive.
Ethiopia’s Agony: ‘I Have Never Seen This Kind of Cruelty in My Life’
A rare look inside a region still reckoning with the toll of war crimes, even as new conflicts roil the nation. By Alexis Okeowo
America’s Hidden Racial Divide: A Mysterious Gap in Psychosis Rates
Black Americans experience schizophrenia and related disorders at twice the rate of white Americans. It’s a disparity that has parallels in other cultures. By Daniel Bergner
Literary Arts Preview: n+1 Magazine – Winter 2025
@nplusonemag (December 4, 2024): The Winter 2025 issue of n+1, RERUN features:
Hannah Zeavin on psychoanalysis’s Palestine exception
Will Tavlin on Netflix’s assault on cinema
Mina Tavakoli attends a ventriloquism convention
Nicholas Dames reads books about parents reading books
Dawn Lundy Martin on falling in and out of love with the university
New fiction by Rachel Khong, Jill Crawford, and Claire Baglin
Bassem Saad on the afterlives of Mahdi Amel
Alan Dean on Radu Jude, Romania’s Godard
Mark Krotov on the return of Trump
Plus the intellectual situation: the editors on Fredric Jameson
Country Life Magazine – December 4, 2024 Preview
Country Life Magazine (December 3, 2024): The latest issue features ‘The Full English’ – Why our homegrown style is back….
London Life
- Richard MacKichan finds Sir Paul Smith rockin’ around Claridge’s Christmas tree
- Catriona Gray meets the movers and shakers of the capital’s art world
- All you need to know this month in the capital
Caroline Moorehead’s favourite painting
The author selects a portrait that shows the ‘very essence of what it was to be Sicilian’
The world turned upside down
Carla Carlisle—wife of a farmer and a diversifier extraordinaire— offers an insider’s view on the Government’s ‘Great Betrayal’
What to look for in winter
Now is not the time to hibernate, suggests John Wright, as he encourages us to appreciate the countryside’s stark, intricate beauty in these colder months
Putting in a Good Word
Lucy Denton delves into the remarkable history of Stationers’ Hall, the central London home of the Worshipful Company of Stationers for the past 400 years
The legacy
Amie Elizabeth White hails Henry Cole, inventor of Christmas cards
The rocky-pool horror show
John Lewis-Stempel loves to be beside the seaside as he examines the enduring appeal of England’s glorious coastline
Bowler me over
Matthew Dennison tips his hat to the rural origins of the bowler as he celebrates its 175th birthday
A touch of frost
Beware an ill wind blowing us into 2025, warns Lia Leendertz
Piste de résistance
Joseph Phelan finds a business on an upslope when he visits the last ski-maker in Scotland
Eyes wide shut
Sleep in art is often drunken, deadly or the stuff of nightmares, but rarely is it peaceful, as Claudia Pritchard discovers
Size matters
Charles Quest-Ritson cranes his neck to take in the sheer scale of the specimens at West Sussex’s Architectural Plants
Kitchen garden cook
Melanie Johnson on sprouts
Travel
- Life in Grenada quickly grows on Rosie Paterson
- Catamarans and cabanas
- Jamaica’s Blue Mountains are heaven for Steven King
- Fine dining is the holy grail for Pamela Goodman
Culture: The American Scholar – Winter 2025
THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR (December 2, 2024): The latest issue features ‘From Atop The Magic Mountain’ – One-Hundred years later, Thomas Mann’s epic remains as prophetic as ever.
Under a Spell Everlasting
Thomas Mann’s Magic Mountain, published a century ago, tells of a world unable to free itself from the cataclysm of war By Samantha Rose Hill
Aging Out
Many of us do not go gentle into that good night
The Fair Fields
Only rarely did the outside world intrude on an idyllic Connecticut childhood, but in the tumultuous 1960s, that intrusion included an encounter with evil
Preview: The New Yorker Magazine – Dec. 9, 2024
Stopping the Press
After spending years painting the media as the “enemy of the people,” Donald Trump is ready to intensify his battle against the journalists who cover him. By David Remnick
R.F.K., Jr., Wants to Eliminate Fluoridated Water. He Used to Bottle and Sell It
Donald Trump’s nominee to lead H.H.S. once started a bottled-water line, Keeper Springs. What was in it? By Charles Bethea
On the Block: Where Jerry Lewis and Buddy Hackett Once Schvitzed
The tummlers have moved on, but the distinctive Friars Club building, in midtown, is going to the highest bidder. By Bruce Handy
Boomers Daily 