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Thought-provoking ideas, published every fortnight. Read: https://lrb.co.uk Listen: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-lrb-podcast/id510327102 Subscribe: https://mylrb.co.uk/TWQU0725

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London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 9d

Issue 47.18 is now online, featuring:

@erinmaglaque.bsky.social on Pico della Mirandola
Conor Gearty on human rights and the law
Thomas Laqueur on the cello
Jessica Olin on Amanda Knox
Colin Burrow on Muriel Spark
and David Runciman on the road to Brexit.

Read online at www.lrb.co.uk

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 11m

‘If there’s anything ironic about being so scared of telling the wrong joke that you run straight into the arms of the House of Saud, it seems lost on the festival performers.’

Malin Hay on the Riyadh Comedy Festival, from the blog: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/oc...

Malin Hay | Laughing Their Heads Off

If there’s anything ironic about being so scared of telling the wrong joke that you run straight into the arms of the...

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 1h

‘The characteristic flavour of Muriel Spark’s writing was that of a Catholic ironist, for whom the terrible and the laughable are all but impossible to disentangle, and all might be viewed (or might not be) from the perspective of eternity.’

Colin Burrow: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Colin Burrow · World-Beating Buster-Upper: Muriel Spark’s Wickedness

The characteristic flavour of Spark’s writing was that of a Catholic ironist, for whom the terrible and the laughable...

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 1h

‘An international stabilisation force is not something most Israelis would like to see. The Palestinian Authority playing a role in Gaza is certainly not something this government would want to see. But it's not a matter of those details.’

Robert Malley on the pod
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

Lessons from the Peace Process

Podcast Episode · The LRB Podcast · 10/10/2025 · 1h 1m

podcasts.apple.com

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 2h

‘Like James Baldwin, she thought social revolution required a reckoning of all relationships, including the individual’s relationship to herself.’

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor (@keeanga.bsky.social) on Audre Lorde: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor · I do not have to be you: Audre Lorde’s Legacy

Lorde never had to persuade her comrades about a strategy, tactic or new idea, lose an argument in order to maintain a...

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 3h

‘The pro-appeasement British ambassador, Nevile Henderson, said he was no longer worried by the British press corps: “Except for Ebbutt, who is now gone, they don’t seek to make mischief.”’

Patrick Cockburn on a journalist who saw the Nazi threat coming: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Patrick Cockburn · Diary: Interviewing Hitler

In August 1937, three German journalists were expelled from Britain for suspected espionage. Retaliation was a...

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 15h

‘There’s little chance of a Uruguayan equivalent of Milei in Montevideo, but it’s bad enough to have him in the Casa Rosada in Buenos Aires.’

Forrest Hylton on the US, Argentina and Uruguay, from the blog: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/oc...

Forrest Hylton | Across the Rio de la Plata

At sunset on a clear day you can see thirty miles across the Rio de la Plata from Colonia de Sacramento to the...

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 15h

‘Now the film begins to reveal its method, which is to allow each story to be hijacked by another before it’s settled in. An invitation to this method can be found in Lee’s predecessors; the film is a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low.’

Michael Wood at the movies
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Michael Wood · At the Movies: ‘Highest 2 Lowest’

Highest 2 Lowest is a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low (1963), which is a loose adaptation of Ed McBain’s...

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 16h

‘A proud sci-fi and fantasy nerd, Amanda Knox inhabits the multiverse. She “fantasises about moving to a remote village in Germany and becoming a seamstress”; “If all else fails,” she jokes, “I can make cuckoo clocks for a living.”’

Jessica Olin on Knox’s new memoir: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Jessica Olin · In the Multiverse: What Knox did next

A proud sci-fi and fantasy nerd, Amanda Knox inhabits the multiverse. She ‘fantasises about moving to a remote village...

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 17h

‘Some librarians were fired; some received death threats. At one point in the film, a grandfather turns up at a school meeting with a gun to tell the library supporters: “We know what you do. We know where you live.”’

Anna Aslanyan on book bans and censorship: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/oc...

Anna Aslanyan | The Censor’s Scissors

John Heartfield was forced to leave Germany in 1933. Even before the Nazis put him on their hit list, his art had caused...

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 17h

‘Five musicians from the Vienna Philharmonic are thought to have taken their instruments to the camps or ghettos, where they played music before they were liquidated. Then there was silence.’

Thomas Laqueuer on Kate Kennedy’s ‘Cello: A Journey through Silence to Sound’
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Thomas Laqueur · A Different Life: Can cellos remember?

Cellists and violinists in particular are haunted by the musicians who played their instruments before them and those...

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 18h

‘It is peculiar, to say the least, that Israel is being given, in a “peace deal”, land that it has not managed to capture militarily.’

@selmadabbagh.bsky.social on Gaza, from the blog: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/oc...

Selma Dabbagh | Knowledge of the Relevant Facts

Israel has assassinated a record number of Palestinian journalists, refused to allow international reporters to enter...

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 19h

‘Praising idleness sounds last century; instead, they like to invoke Marx: while capitalists would rather throw away their goods than give them to workers, we workers would rather be idle than give our labour to capitalists.’

Yun Sheng on China’s Gen Z: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Yun Sheng · Short Cuts: China’s Gen Z

A passive-aggressive ‘lying flat’ attitude is easily dismissed as laziness, but Gen Z-ers have developed a...

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 19h

‘The idea of a governing role for Blair in Gaza revives the legacy of British colonial rule in Palestine, which formally ended in 1948.’

Anne Irfan on British involvement in Palestine, from the blog: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/oc...

Anne Irfan | Balfour to Blair

By endorsing the Trump plan, Keir Starmer continues the long-standing British position of denying the Palestinian people...

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 20h

‘Jean-Luc Mélenchon seems to be betting on an abrupt collapse of centrism that will leave his brand of radicalism as the sole non-racist alternative to right-wing nationalism. This makes him an authentic revolutionist, but it is a dangerous gamble.’

David Todd: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

David Todd · Parable of the Parakeets: Mélenchon’s Ambitions

Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s rise to prominence since 2015 has often been compared to the contemporaneous if more ephemeral...

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 21h

‘The current direction of travel puts us on the way to an AGI with superhuman ability to solve problems, but no more than a slave’s power to frame those problems in the first place.’

@jamesmeek.bsky.social on the search for Artificial General Intelligence: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

James Meek · Computers that want things

For all the fluency and synthetic friendliness of public-facing AI chatbots like ChatGPT, it seems important to remember...

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 21h

‘“The only people this is going to hurt are kids,” one librarian, Nancy Jo Lambert, says of the ban. Another, Julie Miller, talks about losing her job “for asking questions” about why the books were blacklisted.’

Anna Aslanyan on book banning, from the blog: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/oc...

Anna Aslanyan | The Censor’s Scissors

John Heartfield was forced to leave Germany in 1933. Even before the Nazis put him on their hit list, his art had caused...

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 22h

‘It is extraordinary that the UK Supreme Court’s recent decision on the rights of trans people in For Women Scotland v. The Scottish Ministers completely ignores the impact of human rights law.’

Conor Gearty on the Supreme Court’s reinterpretation of the HRA: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Conor Gearty · Unwelcome Remnant: Erasing the Human Rights Act

The Supreme Court is quietly editing the Human Rights Act out of existence. In cases where human rights cannot be...

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 23h

‘I want to steer clear of this sort of flattening effect that I think makes her almost as two-dimensional as she is always complaining about.’

Jessica Olin on the challenges of writing about Amanda Knox, on the podcast: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

Why should we listen to Amanda Knox?

Podcast Episode · The LRB Podcast · 08/10/2025 · 45m

podcasts.apple.com

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 23h

‘Ebbutt had established relationships with his sources long before the Nazis took power and he knew how to use them.’

Patrick Cockburn on a journalist who saw the Nazi threat coming: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Patrick Cockburn · Diary: Interviewing Hitler

In August 1937, three German journalists were expelled from Britain for suspected espionage. Retaliation was a...

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 1d

This is on Sunday!

Tickets still available: www.slunglow.org/v-a-homecomi...

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 1d

‘In April 2024, the Athletic reported that so many people were in jail for tweeting critically about Turki al-Sheikh that a wing of al-Ha’ir prison in Riyadh was nicknamed after him.’

Malin Hay on al-Sheikh’s Riyadh Comedy Festival, from the blog: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/oc...

Malin Hay | Laughing Their Heads Off

If there’s anything ironic about being so scared of telling the wrong joke that you run straight into the arms of the...

Reposted by London Review of Books

Senthorun S. Raj @senthorun.bsky.social · 5d

“The current members of the Supreme Court, ten men and two women, all of them white, seem to regard the Human Rights Act as an unwelcome remnant of a past era.”

Prof Conor Gearty’s final essay in @lrb.co.uk is a painfully clear analysis of how the UK Supreme Court is depressing human rights norms.

Conor Gearty · Unwelcome Remnant: Erasing the Human Rights Act

The Supreme Court is quietly editing the Human Rights Act out of existence. In cases where human rights cannot be...

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 1d

‘Pico della Mirandola’s 𝘖𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 contravenes the very idea of human possibility that we think the Renaissance is about – yet we think of the Renaissance this way partly because of a centuries-long misreading of it.’

@erinmaglaque.bsky.social on the philosopher: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Erin Maglaque · Thishereness: Pico in Purgatory

Pico’s Oration contravenes the very idea of human possibility that we think the Renaissance is about – yet we think...

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 1d

‘A succession of prime ministers persuaded themselves that their country was somehow different from the rest: it could pick and choose from the menu of European options in the way that suited it best. They were all mistaken.’

David Runciman on the road to Brexit: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

David Runciman · Down the Rabbit Hole: Britain’s Europe Problem

From Macmillan to Wilson to Heath to Thatcher to Major to Blair to Cameron, a succession of prime ministers persuaded...

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 1d

‘Bessent tried to sell it to American voters in terms of national security, an issue of “maintaining our strategic interest in the Western Hemisphere”. The US could not afford to let an ally go.’

Forrest Hylton on the US bailout of Argentina, from the blog: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/oc...

Forrest Hylton | Across the Rio de la Plata

At sunset on a clear day you can see thirty miles across the Rio de la Plata from Colonia de Sacramento to the...