“…hundreds of tiny letters could then be cast in a fast-cooling lead alloy – rows of ‘O’s like eyes and ‘I’s like soldiers, perfectly identical, ready to be printed.”

I wrote about the history of fonts, and who gets to say they designed a typeface, for @litreview.bsky.social

I wrote about the Microsoft Word default font you didn't know you were using

Here I am in @nybooks.com talking about mass transit, book design, Mrs Dalloway

www.nybooks.com/online/2025/...

A brilliant review by @zoeguttenplan.bsky.social for @litreview.bsky.social, including a nice mention of @markhussey.bsky.social's new book, Mrs Dalloway: Biography of a novel', which is "full of delightful details" about the modernist masterpiece.

Full review linked below 👇 #booksky

There are 1,400+ newly collected Virginia Woolf letters. Some of them are peak Woolf cattiness, some are heartbreaking. I wrote about this incredible feat of scholarship and indispensable resource in
@litreview.bsky.social

literaryreview.co.uk/to-the-postbox

‘When Sarah Bernhardt called to request a new advertisement for her production of Gismonda, Mucha was in the right place at the right time.’ – Zoe Guttenplan on the life and work of Alphonse Mucha

Happy centenary to Mrs. Dalloway! I listened to the leaden circles dissolve on my way to work this morning and smiled.

"It’s not quite as sexy as the 1972 original, but it is a lot more functional, even as it reproduces some of the design features for which Vignelli was criticized back then." —@zoeguttenplan.bsky.social on NYC subway maps for @nybooks.com

www.nybooks.com/online/2025/...

In his posters and illustrations, the art nouveau artist Alphonse Mucha fused Slavic motifs with Japanese influences to create a style that was truly cutting-edge, writes Zoe Guttenplan

Terrific, terrific piece. (I would nerdishly defend the MTA spending money on the contactless payments as an absolute necessity, though.)

I’m in @nybooks.com online today, writing about the new MTA Subway Diagram — and the long history of failed subway maps that came before.

www.nybooks.com/online/2025/...

Lovely to see #Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico, translated by Sophie Hughes, shortlisted for the #InternationalBookerPrize (@fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social)

Here’s my review from March:

literaryreview.co.uk/hashtag-living

I wrote about the new Sayaka Murata novel for @litreview.bsky.social. The piece comes with a pretty good headline and a Charlotte Perkins Gilman shout out.

literaryreview.co.uk/no-sex-pleas...

What a privilege to design the cover of the forthcoming @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social edition of Mrs. Dalloway. Thinking of rebirth, renewal etc on this surprisingly sunny day here in London, 84 years after Virginia's death

www.nyrb.com/products/mrs...

Out now! Literary Review's March 2025 issue, featuring

Peter Marshall on the Peasants' War
Jonathan Sumption on free speech
@mariamargaronis.bsky.social on Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Owen Matthews on the Baltic
Stephen Smith on Gilbert & George

and much, much more: literaryreview.co.uk

I wrote about New York — its legends, its underbelly — for @thetls.bsky.social www.the-tls.co.uk/world/cities...

And I was v pleased to read my own words in Washington Review of Books latest newsletter

www.washingreview.com/p/wrbdec-4-2...

I love libraries, so I was excited to read Murakami’s latest about a DREAM library. Here are my thoughts: literaryreview.co.uk/shadow-lives

No one tells you that a large portion of your time in archives will be spent wondering what the words ‘ongyny’ ‘suprenes’ or ‘snoroings’ would be if you could only read your subject’s handwriting

Heading across the pond to spend three weeks in the @nypl.bsky.social special collections. Wonder if they’ll let me take Woolf’s walking stick for a spin around the room.