Out now! Literary Review's September 2025 issue, featuring @willtosh.bsky.social on Christopher Marlowe @claireharman.bsky.social on Muriel Spark Seamus Perry on Tennyson Lucy Hughes-Hallett on the stiff upper lip Patrick Wilcken on Easter Island and much, much more: literaryreview.co.uk

19th-century America runs through the life and work of Mark Twain, who was a typesetter, a gold rush prospector, a Confederate soldier and more. Edward Short investigates where Samuel Clemens ends, and Twain begins. literaryreview.co.uk/in-search-of...

Like many trains in this country, HS2 has been blighted by delays and rocketing costs. David Leeder asks who is to blame for the project's failures. literaryreview.co.uk/one-track-mi...

Students of Ancient Rome have long wondered, why would you enjoy watching a man being hacked to death in front of you? @bijanomrani.bsky.social digs for an answer. literaryreview.co.uk/colosseum-co...

Out now! Literary Review's August 2025 issue, featuring Edward Short on Mark Twain Angela Tilby on St Augustine Mark Ford on James Schuyler Dmitri Levitin on Albert Einstein Howard Davies on Trump's tariffs and much, much more: literaryreview.co.uk

Giovanni Boccaccio’s life was one of change and reinvention, ranging from banking to studying canon law, and culminating in his eventual exile from Naples. Alexander Lee explores how these experiences can be found in the poet’s restless work. literaryreview.co.uk/man-of-glass

In the July issue of Literary Review: @willwiles.bsky.social on the Frenchman who brought modernism to London Giles Fraser on Hitler and the vicar Also: Rhodes on trial, Boccaccio in love, Plato gets political - and much, much more. Out now! literaryreview.co.uk

Virginia Woolf is the subject of thousands of books, articles and dissertations. Is there anything new to say about her life and work? Possibly. @zoeguttenplan.bsky.social considers nearly 1,500 previously uncollected letters. literaryreview.co.uk/to-the-postbox

It wasn’t until 1825 that Samuel Pepys’s diary became available for the first time. How it was eventually decrypted and published is a story of subterfuge and duplicity. Kate Loveman tells the tale. literaryreview.co.uk/publishing-p...

Arthur Christopher Benson was a pillar of the Edwardian establishment. He was supremely well connected. As his newly published diaries reveal, he was also riotously indiscreet. Piers Brendon compares Benson’s journals to others from the 20th century. literaryreview.co.uk/land-of-dope...

Of the siblings Gwen and Augustus John, it is Augustus who has commanded most attention from collectors and connoisseurs. Was he really the finer artist, asks Tanya Harrod, or is it time Gwen emerged from her brother’s shadow? literaryreview.co.uk/cut-from-the...

As Apple has grown, one country above all has proved able to supply the skills and capacity it needs: China. What compromises has Apple made in its pivot east? Carl Miller investigates. literaryreview.co.uk/return-of-th...

We are saddened to hear of the death of Edmund White. We've lifted the paywall on Richard Davenport-Hines's 2014 review of White's Paris memoir. literaryreview.co.uk/scenes-from-...

I reviewed @wednesdayerskin.bsky.social's terrific, polyphonic debut novel, The Benefactors, in the June issue of @litreview.bsky.social literaryreview.co.uk/trouble-strife

Out now! Literary Review's June 2025 issue, featuring Piers Brendon on A C Benson Richard V Reeves on the manosphere @zoeguttenplan.bsky.social on Virginia Woolf Tanya Harrod on Gwen & Augustus John Carl Miller on Apple in China and much, much more: literaryreview.co.uk

Johannes Gutenberg cut corners at every turn when putting together his bible. How, then, did his creation achieve such renown? @josephhone.bsky.social investigates. literaryreview.co.uk/start-the-pr...

Convinced of her own brilliance, Gertrude Stein wished to be ‘as popular as Gilbert and Sullivan’ and laboured tirelessly to ensure that her celebrity would outlive her. Sophie Oliver examines the real Stein. literaryreview.co.uk/the-once-fut...

Princess Diana was adored and scorned, idolised, canonised and chastised. Why, asks Nicola Shulman, was everyone mad about Diana? literaryreview.co.uk/kind-hearts-...

I reviewed Zachary Leader's new book about Richard Ellmann (and Ellmann's Joyce biography) for The Literary Review (@litreview.bsky.social). literaryreview.co.uk/portrait-of-...

Out now! Literary Review's May 2025 issue, featuring Nicola Shulman on Princess Diana Sophie Oliver on Gertrude Stein Costica Bradatan on Pascal Howard Davies on the dollar's decline @josephhone.bsky.social on Gutenberg and much, much more: literaryreview.co.uk

Under its longest-serving editor, Graydon Carter, Vanity Fair was that rare thing – a New York society magazine that published serious journalism. Peter York looks at what Carter got right. literaryreview.co.uk/deluxe-editi...

Henry James returned to America in 1904 with three objectives: to see his brother William, to deliver a series of lectures on Balzac, and to gather material for a pair of books about modern America. Peter Rose follows James out west. literaryreview.co.uk/the-restless...

Vladimir Putin served his political apprenticeship in the KGB toward the end of the Cold War, a period during which Western societies were infiltrated by so-called ‘illegals’. Piers Brendon investigates how the culture of Soviet spycraft shaped his thinking. literaryreview.co.uk/tinker-tailo...

In both the USA and Latin America, there is a long-standing belief that the countries of the Americas have a common interest and destiny. Anthony Pagden assesses the prospects for transcontinental collaboration today. literaryreview.co.uk/pax-americana

When Augusto Pinochet arrived in London for medical treatment in 1998, he was surprised to find himself arrested while in hospital. Richard Vinen examines why Pinochet was eventually released and what the episode reveals about Britain’s legal system. literaryreview.co.uk/dictator-in-...

What connections are there between William Blake and whales? Seamus Perry delves deep for answers. literaryreview.co.uk/and-did-thos...

By the end of Josephine Baker’s life, she had become the first black woman to appear in a film, a civil rights leader and a chevalier of the Legion d’honneur. Lucy Moore explores how Baker became the most celebrated American in Paris. literaryreview.co.uk/an-american-...

Out now! Literary Review's April 2025 issue, featuring Peter Rose on Henry James Piers Brendon on Russian sleeper agents Lucy Moore on Josephine Baker Seamus Perry on William Blake @peteryork.bsky.social on Graydon Carter and much, much more: literaryreview.co.uk

Is the regulation of speech necessary for achieving wider social goods? Jonathan Sumption examines the question. literaryreview.co.uk/war-of-words

The Soviet Union might seem the last place that the art duo Gilbert & George would achieve success. Yet as the communist regime collapsed, that’s precisely what happened. Stephen Smith wonders how two East End gadflies infiltrated the Eastern Bloc. literaryreview.co.uk/from-russia-...

Coleridge was fifty-four lines into ‘Kubla Khan’ before a knock on the door disturbed him. Unable to return to his labours, he blamed the unfinished poem on ‘a person on business from Porlock’. Joanna Kavenna goes looking for the person from Porlock. literaryreview.co.uk/do-not-disturb

Russia’s recent efforts to destabilise the Baltic states have increased enthusiasm for the EU in these places. With Euroscepticism growing in countries like France and Germany, Owen Matthews wonders whether Europe’s salvation will come from its periphery. literaryreview.co.uk/sea-of-troub...

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