Times Literary Supplement (December 11, 2024): The latest issue features ‘The tragic Queen of France’ – The legend of Marie Antoinette; William Dalrymple’s Indian empire; Mary Beard – A night at the museum; The coffee house scientist; What Kindle readers want…
Country Life Magazine (December 10, 2024): The latest issue features ‘The Christmas Double Issue’…
The Revd Dr Colin Heber-Percy considers the Christmas story told in familiar rituals
Frost casts a garden’s structure into sharp relief. Tiffany Daneff enters a sparkling world
The Dean of St Albans chooses a canvas full of uplifting light for dark times
Kate Green pays tribute to Dame Ninette de Valois, the ‘godmother of ballet’
In the first of two articles, John Goodall traces the saintly history of the ancient abbey church of St Albans, Hertfordshire
The feisty robin is the undisputed avian king of Christmas. Mark Cocker wonders why
From weaving wreaths to corralling choristers, the work is ramping up for country people, who talk to Kate Green and Paula Lester
Catriona Gray meets the artists capturing Nature’s beauty in gold
Stop and listen to Nature’s voice, urges John Lewis-Stempel
Hanging treasured decorations is all part of the magic. Matthew Dennison opens the bauble box
Deborah Nicholls-Lee dares to unveil the mysterious figure
Take on our quizmaster — and, more importantly, your family and friends
Melanie Cable-Alexander buckles up for riotous country-house-corridor games
Harry Pearson takes over the world with the classic board game
Jonathan Self chortles at British comedy
The spirit of Christmas works its magic on a curmudgeonly baronet in Kate Green’s tale
Natural scents win for Arabella Youens
The sheep and its patient guardians have long delighted artists, finds Michael Prodger
Knitting, diamonds and Giles Coren’s treats
Is the perfect rural habitation real, wonders John Lewis-Stempel
Modern mince pies are but pale shadows of the past, believes Neil Buttery
Who can resist a roastie? Not Emma Hughes, nor anyone else in their right mind
Melanie Johnson builds a gingerbread house
Glazed and succulent, the Christmas ham is the king of the feast for Tom Parker Bowles
Give wine time to age, urges Harry Eyres
John Lewis-Stempel gathers in the holly, once divine diadem, now a cow’s Christmas feast
Labour’s family-farm tax will mean ruin for a beleaguered sector, says Minette Batters
Sam Leith opens the well-worn covers of the childhood books we will always cherish
From frogs to rat armies, the natural world has inspired countless ballets. Laura Parker straps on her pointe shoes for the bunny hop
Michael Billington awards his accolades to the stars — and the scourges — of the stage
Operas with food and wine may be rousing, but there are perils, warns Henrietta Bredin
Country Life reviewers select their top books
by Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman
In a revelatory book, Farrell and Newman describe how the United States has turned its control over information networks into a hidden tool of economic domination—and warn of the risks of Washington’s weaponization of data power for ordinary people, as well as for the global financial system.read the review
by Sergey Radchenko
In a major reconsideration of Cold War history, Radchenko examines the Soviet Union’s competing ambitions for revolution, security, and legitimacy—and how Soviet leadership, blinded by its own hubris and aggression, set the stage for the downfall of the USSR. read the review
by Alan S. Kahan
Kahan argues that what unifies liberals across the centuries, including those involved in building and defending liberal democracy today, are their efforts to build societies free from the fear of arbitrary power. He sculpts a masterful and beautifully written history of liberalism’s long intellectual journey. read the review
by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt
In this sobering study, Levitsky and Ziblatt demonstrate how the United States’ enduring constitutional order—one forged in a pre-democratic age—increasingly thwarts the will of an expanding multicultural majority in favor of a shrinking rural white minority.read the review
by Anne Applebaum
Focused on the sophisticated and networked world of autocracy, dictatorship, and tyranny, Applebaum argues that what separates hardcore autocratic states, such as China and Russia, from softer illiberal and authoritarian regimes, such as those in Hungary, India, and Turkey, is the ruthlessness and reach of their dictatorial power and their deep hostility to the Western-led democratic world.read the review
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 devastating outcome of the 1983 game reveals that nuclear escalation inevitably spirals out of control.
The Academy Award-winning actress discusses her lifelong quest for connection, humanity’s innate goodness and the point of being alive.
A rare look inside a region still reckoning with the toll of war crimes, even as new conflicts roil the nation. By Alexis Okeowo
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
BARRON’S MAGAZINE (December 7, 2024): The latest issue features ‘The Bull Case for Investing Abroad’…
Investing abroad has been a tough sell, but overseas markets offer growth—and value.
Investors effectively are paying nearly $240,000 for each of the company’s 402,100 Bitcoins, well above the market price.
People can avoid messy family fights by preparing a will. It needn’t be a complicated document.
Rising prices are here to stay. Use these investments to beat the inflation trap.Long read
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Model-stumping benchmark shows human experts remain on top—for now
Researchers probe volcanoes’ response to a changing world
Urgent action underway to bolster treatments and prevent dangerous microbes from spilling across borders
Times Literary Supplement (December 4, 2024): The latest issue features ‘HIs Other Country’ – The James Baldwin revival continues in the 100th anniversary year of his birth. A trickle of biographies has become a flood, and the causes for which he stood, racial equality and gay rights, speak to the times.
Record-label scouts chase ‘strange compositions’
A video game challenges the history of Argentina
By Mia Levitin
Boomers Daily 