‘Actual homosexuals have not usually shared Sartre’s priorities. To have a history is to be real, and to possess political legitimacy.’ James Butler (@piercepenniless.bsky.social) on gay history and its uses. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘Salameh was murdered not just because of Munich, but also because his close relationship with the CIA made him a point of contact between Washington and the PLO, a connection not at all to Israel’s liking.’ Andrew Cockburn on Mossad’s assassination strategy. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘The historian R.N. Swanson records a 15th-century calculation that pilgrimage to Becket’s shrine in Canterbury could earn you, if you played your cards right, as much as 37,503 years and 250 days of remission.’ Cal Revely-Calder walks the Way of St Augustine. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ap...

‘What felt inauthentic in Europe was central to Lam’s understanding of his own work in Cuba. He referred to a “desire to include in my painting all the transculturation that had occurred in Cuba”.’ Tony Wood on Cuban painter Wifredo Lam, at MoMA. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘The promise of genetic engineering was that the price of insulin would come plummeting down because you no longer needed to rely on processing carcasses. That wasn’t, in fact, what happened.’ Liam Shaw on the discovery of insulin, on the podcast. Listen here: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

‘When I started to write full-time about the theatre, I was fixated on television soaps. Not all of them. I didn’t have an afternoon habit. Just 𝘌𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘌𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴.’ Susannah Clapp watches (and listens to) the soaps. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘Maragret Cavendish was unique, but was she original? Countless early modern female poets were described as “peerless”, “singular” and “incomparable” in their time. Today we would interpret these as affirmations. Not so in the Renaissance.’ Katie Ebner-Landy: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘We can’t go back to a world in which the assumptions are that transit through that part of the world of energy is relatively straightforward.’ Helen Thompson on Iran, oil and Trump’s resource politics, on the podcast. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

‘The justices have shown little interest in original meanings when they don’t chime with their immediate political aims. The government seems likely to lose the birthright citizenship case, but that outcome is far from certain.’ Aziz Huq on Trump’s citizenship orders. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘Insulin’s global market was still dominated by three companies: Novo Nordisk, Sanofi and Eli Lilly. All three can trace their history of insulin production back to 1923, securing a reliable customer base in the millions of people who needed it to survive.’ Liam Shaw: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘The point is to tap narrative’s capacity as a navigating tool, though its limitations are also crucial. If a narrative explains everything, there’s no room for the uncanny or ineffable. If it explains nothing, it ceases to be narrative.’ Leo Robson on Nicola Barker. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘Unless you’re in it for the indulgence, pilgrimage isn’t a practical affair. It costs time and effort and money. It’s a rare triumph of uselessness in a world that prizes the reduction of daily life to utility.’ Cal Revely-Calder walks the Way of St Augustine. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ap...

‘If his hero is a progenitor of modern thriller heroes, in his attitude to his old school, Hornung looks back, not forward.’ Ferdinand Mount revisits 𝘙𝘢𝘧𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘴, 𝘎𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘦𝘧. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘Epstein had been both buying from and selling through Christie’s since at least 2004. He had also been the point person for sales of some hugely valuable modern masterpieces from the collection of Leon Black.’ Erin L. Thompson (@artcrimeprof.bsky.social) on the blog. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ma...

‘Late on Good Friday I watched a 𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘰 or float of the 𝘔𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘋𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘢 making its ponderous way towards the cathedral. The life-sized statue was swaying gently from side to side and looked like a beautiful beetle.’ Mary Wellesley in Granada, from 2015. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2015/ap...

‘Women were more often engaged in agricultural work – especially milking cows but also other forms of animal husbandry, along with weeding, sowing and harvesting crops – than they were in care work.’ @tomlukejohnson.bsky.social on early modern working patterns. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘One of the most common accusations levelled at Vučić is that he has been too accommodating of foreign powers, to his own benefit and to Serbia’s detriment.’ @vincentbevins.bsky.social on how Serbia’s Novi Sad protests are changing its politics. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘Unlike previous US presidents, Trump has not even pretended to have a democratic justification for his foreign policy, and these negotiations won’t bring any significant democratisation to Cuba.’ Samuel Farber on US-Cuba relations, from the blog. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ap...

‘Despite there being no patent on insulin itself, its three early manufacturers now enjoyed unchallenged dominance. And despite the promise that genetic engineering would lead to falling costs, the price of insulin in the US only rose.’ Liam Shaw: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘Once it was understood that AI needed electricity at scale, then SIlicon Valley wanted the administration that was most committed to nuclear power.’ Helen Thompson on Trump’s resource politics, oil and Iran, on the podcast. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

‘“There are no ethics to these people,” Perring said to me of Steele and senior figures at Audere. “They did what they did, they knew it was wrong, and their motivation was the almighty dollar.”’ Vadim Nikitin on Russiagate, Christopher Steele and private spying. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘We don’t know the route Augustine took – Bede, writing a century later, skips from Thanet to Canterbury – and we couldn’t walk it if we did. The Isle of Thanet was then divided from Kent by the Wantsum Channel.’ Cal Revely-Calder on pilgrimage in Kent, from the blog. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ap...

‘Step by step, Germany is transformed. Sally Carson spares her readers no detail of the disaster as it evolves.’ Dinah Birch reads novels exploring the rise of Nazism. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘Animal ethics was nowhere near the same sort of state that it is today. So they would literally go out onto the street and buy dogs for their experiments from people.’ Liam Shaw on the discovery of insulin, on the podcast. Listen here: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

‘It is all, in light of the facts of her life and fiction, quite mystifying. Straight people are not naming their characters Cressida Garnet, I promise.’ Patricia Lockwood on Willa Cather. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘Mitchell still couldn’t repay the now long overdue loan, so Epstein persuaded him to “split the baby” by putting only the Hercules up for auction. (Who actually owned the sculptures remains unclear.)’ Erin L. Thompson (@artcrimeprof.bsky.social) on Epstein’s art. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ma...

‘For those who grow up paralysed by shame and self-disgust, the discovery of people like oneself in history, or of the mutability of sexual customs and social mores, can act as a catalyst for self-acceptance.’ @piercepenniless.bsky.social on gay history and its uses. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

I love how Patricia Lockwood can do a smart deep dive on a writer's career and also include lines like "In ‘Coming, Aphrodite!’, the characters, a singer and an aspiring artist, very much go to town on each other’s holes." via @lrb.co.uk

‘What Trump really wants out of these negotiations is to defeat the Cuban government in order to reaffirm and consolidate US control of Latin America and the Western hemisphere.’ Samuel Farber on US-Cuba relations, from the blog. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ap...

‘The careful selection process employed in the days of Operation Wrath of God is a distant memory; victims in the tens of thousands have been selected and located with the aid of AI systems.’ Andrew Cockburn on Mossad’s assassination strategy and its legacy. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

New on the podcast: Helen Thompson joins @piercepenniless.bsky.social to discuss Iran and the oil crisis, exploring how energy requirements helped Trump to secure the backing of major US corporations in the 2024 presidential election. Listen on our website: www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and...

‘It is one of the paradoxes of Gustave Caillebotte’s reputation that he is at his best when he is least obviously an Impressionist, and at his worst when he attempts to play on the same pitch as Monet and Pissarro.’ Tom Crewe on the painter’s ‘cruising eye’. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘Turns out I’m really good at killing people,’ Barack Obama remarked to aides after ordering a strike in 2011. ‘Didn’t know that was going to be a strong suit of mine.’ Beware the mattress www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘Médecins Sans Frontières estimate that the cost to manufacture insulin for a typical patient for a year is less than £100. The median global price is at least double this.’ Liam Shaw on the discovery of insulin. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘ICE’s 2025 budget was $28.7 billion, over three times its Biden-era figure and more than Brazil or Spain spends on its army. Even with the best intentions in the world, tripling the size of a law enforcement body will bring problems.’ Aziz Huq on citizenship. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘Suddenly cricket itself didn’t seem so picturesque. The steady and remorseless professionalising of the game left no room for frivolity; the village green seemed a long way from the huge new stadiums.’ Ferdinand Mount revisits 𝘙𝘢𝘧𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘴, 𝘎𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘦𝘧. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘The desire to turn Lebanon into another Gaza, articulated by Israeli spokesmen, is being fulfilled with attacks on journalists, the use of undercover operatives and the bombing of displaced families.’ @selmadabbagh.bsky.social on the blog. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ma...

Good piece on James Macintyre’s Gordon Brown biography: ‘There is a great quote here from an official in the Department for Work and Pensions: ‘If you want to get Gordon to sign off on something it’s a good idea to stick a chart on the front showing the big gain going to the poorest 10 per cent.’’

‘It was acknowledged that starvation was extremely unpleasant, so it would be good to start the regime with a lot of coffee and whisky so that you were at least comfortable and, I guess, distracted.’ Liam Shaw on the discovery of insulin, on the podcast. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

‘An aesthetic like Nicola Barker’s, which is invested in the novel as a vehicle of sense-making, a site of irreducible specificity and an opportunity for joyful mischief, can never forsake the John-and-Jane route.’ Leo Robson on Barker’s transcendence. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘There is absolutely nothing democratic about the negotiations between Trump’s agents and the Cuban government. If an agreement is reached, it will be a pure distillation of politics from above.’ Samuel Farber on US-Cuba relations, from the blog. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ap...

‘Unwaged and often unrecorded, “women’s work” has proved too difficult to measure. It is​ the great originality of 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘌𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘞𝘰𝘳𝘬, a research project led by Jane Whittle, to have found a solution to this problem.’ @tomlukejohnson.bsky.social on medieval work. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘The collapse of the train station drew people of every age and background onto the streets. But opposition parties failed to use the opportunity to present a wider set of complaints about Vučić.’ @vincentbevins.bsky.social on Serbia’s Novi Sad protests. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘The belief that all the answers are on the surface is inimical to the spirit of Gustave Caillebotte’s work. If Caillebotte’s paintings teach us anything, it is that looking is its own pleasure.’ Tom Crewe on the painter’s ‘cruising eye’. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘One of the​ biggest ironies of Russiagate is that despite there being no basis to its claim of collusion between Trump and Putin, Christopher Steele does have Russian connections of his own, some of them close to the Kremlin.’ Vadim Nikitin on private spies. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘Epstein had been both buying from and selling through Christie’s since at least 2004. He had also been the point person for sales of some hugely valuable modern masterpieces from the collection of Leon Black.’ Erin L. Thompson (@artcrimeprof.bsky.social) on the blog. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ma...

‘Willa Cather's stories are so sexually charged that it feels absurd to read in the biographies about sublimation and evasion and the appropriation of male perspectives.’ @tricialockwood.bsky.social on the American novelist. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘Amira Haas reported in 𝘏𝘢𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘻 last month that Israel was holding the bodies of 776 Palestinians. There are 256 buried in nameless, numbered graves while the rest are held at military morgues.’ @selmadabbagh.bsky.social on Gaza and Lebanon, from the blog. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ma...

NEW PODCAST! Lauren Elkin & Lou Stoppard on the life, works and legacy of one of feminism’s most enduring icons, Simone de Beauvoir. Listen here: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/l...

‘𝘊𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘊𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘴 is driven by a steady building of cold dread, as the reader is led to appreciate the extent to which life in Germany has been corroded by hatred and fear.’ Dinah Birch on novels exploring Nazism’s rise. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...