‘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...

Fascinating by @piercepenniless.bsky.social & refreshing that it doesn't shy away from discussing the exploitative aspect of pederastic homosexual desire. Also, I as ever find myself asking how we historically locate & describe those who loved & lusted for men & women www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘Homophobia is both a moral and historical category error. Score one for Marcel Proust and Lady Gaga: we were born this way.’ James Butler (@piercepenniless.bsky.social) on gay history and its uses. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘Israel wants a clear line of vision from Rafah to Tehran, and is scorching the earth between them to achieve this.’ Amjad Iraqi on the Israeli military playbook. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

If you love books and words and Willa Cather this is for you. Patricia Lockwood interrogating the sacred (light, Mary) : profane (queer, sexual, gender) in Cather and queer erasure in the literary world/biographies. As only Lockwood can. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘Whether or not the political leadership in club members’ countries were officially informed of the Israeli campaign, they felt no reason to complain. Many had their own record of dirty work.’ Andrew Cockburn on Mossad’s assassination strategy and its legacy. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘A recent survey reported that 20 per cent of Americans with diabetes had rationed insulin in the last year, compared to none in Britain, Sweden or Germany. The US is an outlier, but insulin’s robust oligopoly has persisted worldwide.’ Liam Shaw on insulin’s discovery. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Holy shit this LRB article on the infamous Steele dossier, but more importantly, on the job of collecting business intelligence for clients is absolutely brilliant: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

There I stayed, and there forgot, my cheek laid on my Beloved fair. And all things ceased, and I was lost and all my worldly doubt and care were sunk among the lilies there. ‘Dark Night’, a poem by John of the Cross, translated by Martha Sprackland. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘Bernheimer spent months calling and emailing to win the right to sell “the Epstein marbles” on what he claimed was a “superheated” market with a “tremendous appetite for exquisite objects with solid provenance that are fresh to the market”.’ @artcrimeprof.bsky.social: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ma...

‘I would come home from King Lear or the Oresteia to a pile of video cassettes: hours of hearing Patsy Palmer yelling for “Rickeeee!” I always watched the recordings immediately.’ Susannah Clapp watches (and listens to) the soaps. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

On the podcast: Liam Shaw joins @moonjets.bsky.social to discuss the history of diabetes treatments from insulin to Ozempic, the all-too-human scientists who discovered them and the companies that profit from them. Listen wherever you get podcasts, or here: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

‘Elizabeth Scott-Baumann's chosen poets were already engaged, she argues, in critical debates about literary style. Early modern women “theorised literature as much as men did”. Katie Ebner-Landy on early modern women’s writing. ’www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘Even a small number of well-targeted denaturalisations could have far-reaching political effects.’ Aziz Huq on Trump’s attacks on citizenship. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘In most of the work, Nicola Barker hasn’t been an obviously religious writer. The surface of her prose is less pensive than in-your-face: her books teem with puns and italics.’ Leo Robson on the British novelist. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘To find out what will come next, you have to pick up gossip from a twenty-year-old. Or you can do what the rest of the country does: wait for the web of secret councils to make a decision and publish it on social media.’ @vincentbevins.bsky.social on Serbia’s protests www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘It is not just his peculiar way of perceiving and framing the world but the atmosphere thus created, which seems almost always to be one of separateness, pensiveness, even absentness.’ Tom Crewe on Gustave Caillebotte’s ‘cruising eye’. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘The Hercules, for all the glamorous photos and prime auction placement, didn’t sell. Epstein’s contact at Christie’s tried to soothe the disappointed financier while Bernheimer scrambled to make things better.’ Erin L. Thompson (@artcrimeprof.bsky.social) on the blog. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ma...

‘Raffles survives, and it’s not just the verve and breakneck pace of the stories. What captivated me once again, what I had more or less forgotten, was the angst.’ Ferdinand Mount revisits 𝘙𝘢𝘧𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘴, 𝘎𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘦𝘧. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘The Paraguayan president, Santiago Peña, has declared the “Cártel de los Soles” a terrorist organisation, even though the US Justice Department has explained to Trump, who wanted to charge Maduro as its leader, that there is no such organisation.’ Forrest Hylton: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ma...

‘While women certainly undertook vastly more of the recorded tasks for housework and care work, these two categories of labour took up less than 40 per cent of the total time they spent working.’ @tomlukejohnson.bsky.social on early modern work. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘There were reports last month that the Gaza War Cemetery had been bulldozed, disturbing Canadian graves. The Australian Senate was informed that 146 of the 263 Australian graves in Gaza have been damaged.’ @selmadabbagh.bsky.social on Gaza and Lebanon, from the blog. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ma...

‘Sally Carson’s dissection of the question that has disturbed the European mind for decades – how did it happen? – has touched a contemporary nerve, and the new edition of Crooked Cross has met with unexpected success.’ Dinah Birch on novels exploring Nazism’s rise. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘It is field agents, whether spies or subcontractors, who provide the critical raw information that differentiates human-led intelligence from the mass of much cheaper open-source research.’ Vadim Nikitin on Christopher Steele, Russiagate and private spying. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘The land is not empty, it’s busy and has a vivid history. One of Willa Cather’s theses, which can be traced all the way back to her earliest work, is: other people are here.’ @tricialockwood.bsky.social on the American novelist. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...