“I have a very old-fashioned view, which is that the defence of free expression begins at the point at which somebody says something you don’t like. It’s a very simple thing, but it’s being forgotten.”

Salman Rushdie talks to Erica Wagner

newstatesman.com/the-weekend-in…

📚 This week’s Reviewed In Short
• Pippa Bailey on Marilynne Robinson’s Reading Genesis
• Michael Prodger on Ross King’s Shortest History of Italy
• Anoosh Chakelian on Tom Baldwin and Marc Stears’ England
• Tom Gatti on Sinéad Gleeson’s Hagstone

newstatesman.com/culture/books/…

“In the process of writing this profoundly life-affirming memoir, it is clear that Rushdie has found his own peace. For the rest of us, it should have the opposite effect. It should shake us from our complacencies.”
Nicola Sturgeon on Salman Rushdie
newstatesman.com/the-weekend-es…

Huge respect for any writer who can produce something this considered & perceptive after just a handful of spins

newstatesman.com/culture/music/…

The NS Podcast Election Special: join Anoosh Chakelian Freddie Hayward, Ben Walker plus special guest Grace Blakeley for a live recording of our award-winning podcast at Cambridge Literary Festival on 20 April.

For 20% off tickets use the code NSDIGITAL24
cambridgeliteraryfestival.com/events/the-new…

The New Statesman is hiring an editor to run The Staggers – our online home for reactive comment, debate and analysis each day.

newstatesman.com/editors-note/2…

The FCO “is nothing short of a celebration of the British empire at its most powerful and racist”. Sathnam Sanghera newstatesman.com/comment/2024/0…

“A midwife appeared with some information they’d printed off. As I read it, I sobbed. I was 35 years old and thought my life was over.”

A personal, powerful, essential long read by Hannah Barnes on birth trauma – often dismissed, almost always devastating

newstatesman.com/politics/healt…

The triumph of Wishful Verbiage, in which aspiration trumps accuracy... by Armando Iannucci
newstatesman.com/comment/2024/0…

The review of my memoir, A Very Private School, from the current The New Statesman is by former Poet Laureate Andrew Motion - he suffered at the same school, a decade or so earlier than my classmates and I: newstatesman.com/culture/books/…

“This is the great triumph of Carrie, that King somehow knew about all the loathsome ways the anger of a teenage girl can warp and protrude.”
– Megan Nolan on Stephen King
newstatesman.com/culture/books/…

The The New Statesman Easter Special is here! Feat:
🩸Megan Nolan on Carrie
🗣️ Armando Iannucci on “wishful verbiage”
🏫 Andrew Motion on boarding school
💀 Anjana Ahuja on Immortality Inc
🎶 Ian Bostridge on Bach
🐦‍⬛ Helen Macdonald on the dawn chorus
+ much more
newstatesman.com/magazine/easte…

I went to Paris to write about Annie Ernaux, photography, and how we see ourselves among others – for @artreview_ artreview.com/exteriors-anni…

Last night, I was delighted to present Tom Crewe with the Sunday Times Charlotte Aitken Young Writer of the Year Award. Here is my interview with Tom, who didn’t know at the time that he’d won.

thetimes.co.uk/article/fe8909…

“The ill-effects of their influence have blighted the whole course of my adult life and several times threatened to capsize it altogether.”
Andrew Motion, like Charles Spencer, went to Maidwell Hall. His recollections make for devastating reading

newstatesman.com/culture/books/…

Excellent reporting on the RSL row from Ellen Peirson-Hagger

newstatesman.com/the-weekend-re…

Brilliant piece by Oliver Eagleton on Jonathan White's 'In the Long Run: The Future as a Political Idea' newstatesman.com/culture/books/…

Fascinating by Anoosh Chakelian on how ITV News rebooted itself

newstatesman.com/the-weekend-re…

“This cohort, born between 1991 and 1999, came of age during a period of technological revolution, economic collapse and political resistance.”

Essential piece by Gary Younge on politics & UK rap, via Aniefiok 'Neef' Ekpoudom’s Where We Come From

newstatesman.com/culture/2024/0…

📔ALPHABETICAL DIARIES by Sheila Heti publishes today!📔 ‘Exhilarating: both intimate and withholding, repetitive and generative, undeniably self-centred and yet moving beyond the self.’ — anna leszkiewicz. Read an excerpt on our website: fitzcarraldoeditions.com/books/alphabet…