News and reviews

Masquerade reviewed in the Spectator

Added on 09/05/2026

In the satirical print ‘Remarkable Characters at Mrs Cornely’s Masquerade’ from February 1771, the Georgian craze for dressing up as fantastical characters is shown in all its theatricality and wild invention.

Trinity reviewed in Nature

Added on 08/05/2026

Many books describe how the first atomic bomb was built. But this history by Emily Seyl stands apart. It tells the story of the bomb’s Trinity test in New Mexico in July 1945 through restored photographs from the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s National Security Research Center, where Seyl works.

Radicals reviewed in the Literary Review

Added on 08/05/2026

In 1923, a young miner named William Davison was killed crossing Dawdon Colliery pit yard when falling timber fractured his skull. Because his widow had never been to Newcastle before, a union official met her at the bus stop to take her to the solicitors.

Edward Steichen and the Garden reviewed in the Literary Review

Added on 08/05/2026

The stately delphinium, that most elegant of garden flowers, typically standing resplendent en pointe in clusters at the rear of the border, arrayed in a petalled garb of deep blue or rich purple, has rather fallen from favour in recent years.

Contested Commons reviewed in the Morning Star

Added on 08/05/2026

The pages of this newspaper are full of articles and stories about protests; be they progressive, reactionary or anything in between. But what of the places, usually outdoors spaces, where protests take place? Sometimes these places are the subject of protest themselves.

Knife-Woman reviewed in the Literary Review

Added on 08/05/2026

Having been named for her father, Louis, a mere dealer in antique tapestries, seemed insufficiently romantic to Louise Bourgeois, who was born on Christmas Day in 1911.

Climate by Proxy reviewed in the LRB

Added on 07/05/2026

Proxies stand in for something or someone else: a press secretary stands in for a politician; the number of citations a scientific paper gets stands in for its significance; the rise or fall of Gross Domestic Product stands in for the overall health of the economy.

The Rise and Fall of Rational Control review in the LRB

Added on 07/05/2026

Harvey C. Mansfield, a professor of government at Harvard from 1962 until his retirement from teaching in 2023 at the age of 91, has never shirked any opportunity to burnish his reputation as a conservative ogre. His interventions in the campus culture wars have been plentiful, memorable and clumsy.

Enshittification mentioned in the New Scientist

Added on 05/05/2026

A decision by NHS England to withdraw open-source code created with UK taxpayer funds because of the risk posed by computer-hacking AI models is attracting growing backlash.

Control Science reviewed in the Financial Times

Added on 04/05/2026

At the centre of Henry Snow’s book stands Jeremy Bentham’s proposed prison-rotunda, the Panopticon.
Snow reminds us that the idea of a building designed round a central inspection tower “was a workplace before it was a prison”, the brainchild of the philosopher’s mechanically minded younger brother, Samuel.

Iran and the Revolution reviewed in the Guardian

Added on 04/05/2026

As Wordsworth found in Paris after 1789, revolutions are deeply enthralling. There is nothing so bold, so self-sacrificing, so brave, so cruel as a revolutionary crowd. What’s more, revolutions have shaped the modern world.

The End of Vodka featured in the Observer

Added on 03/05/2026

If you thought merchandise inspired by Frida Kahlo had reached its peak in 2018 with a controversial “Frida” Barbie doll, complete with floral headpiece and braided hair, think again.