So sad to learn of the death of the brilliant John Burnside, who on top of everything else was New Statesman nature columnist from 2011. Hard to choose favourite pieces but here are a few that we reached for today newstatesman.com/culture/2024/0…

John Burnside’s poems acted on one like a drug, a substance in the bloodstream. One would struggle to say what they were “about”. Rather, one might emerge blinking and wondering, “Where have I just been?” By Kathleen Jamie newstatesman.com/culture/2024/0…

📯NEW: The Office for Statistics Regulation has issued a statement on Hunt and Sunak's £2,000 claim. newstatesman.com/politics/2024/…

On Martin Amis’s memorial and language as a source of joy newstatesman.com/culture/books/…

Quite right.

On the new Blur doc “To the End” and why the lost boys of Britpop still need each other newstatesman.com/culture/music/…

An Iris Murdoch blue plaque has gone up in west London. On her centenary, I wrote a @newstatesman account of her life, work, reputation, with material on her ridiculously good novels, philosophy, Bellow, Kermode, maybe et al Miles Leeson Sophie Hannah newstatesman.com/culture/2019/0…

Delighted to announce our new nature columnist: Simon Armitage. His first is on litter and letting go: newstatesman.com/culture/nature…

“It’s possible that in decades to come, music writers will look back at the Eras tour as the peak of Swift mania, the moment the pop star reached the height of her powers. But hers is a crown she won’t give up easily” anna leszkiewicz newstatesman.com/culture/music/…

Election leader o’clock newstatesman.com/new-statesman-…

“Having made my escape over the wall of the establishment and dodged the searchlights to make it into the safety of the trees, I am not going to accept an award that would mean walking back in through the front door wearing a suit.” –– Mark Haddon newstatesman.com/comment/2024/0…

The lobbyists lobbying to get in the lobby... important reporting here 👇

Announcing the 2024 The New Statesman /The Goldsmiths Prize Lecture: Deborah Levy's personal manifesto on why the novel matters. Southbank Centre #LondonLiteratureFestival, 24 October, 7.45pm Tickets on sale now: bit.ly/SC_Goldsmiths_…

Announcing the 2024 New Statesman/Goldsmiths Prize Lecture: Deborah Levy's personal manifesto on why the novel matters. Southbank Centre London Literature Festival, 24 October, 7.45pm southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/liter…

“The small-girl’s Proust” –– fascinating The New York Review of Books essay by anna leszkiewicz on I Capture the Castle and Dodie Smith’s struggle for “literary” status nybooks.com/online/2024/07…

The indie-rock artist’s posthumous status as a “torment saint” is an ill-fitting reputation. 🎸 Yo Zushi on Elliott Smith newstatesman.com/culture/2024/0…

The The New Statesman summer special is here! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Scotland, myth & memory: 📷 Robbie Lawrence ✍️ John Burnside ❌anna leszkiewicz on Woolf & offence 🦎Helen Macdonald: secrets of the heath Frank Cottrell-Boyce's diary 🇸🇮 Zizek in Slovenia by Kate Mossman + more newstatesman.com/magazine/summe…

Among parents, always the most passed-around piece from our summer issue... Amanda Craig’s picks, from picture books to YA novels newstatesman.com/culture/books/…

“Strangers, congratulating me, ask if I have to write a poem for the King’s birthday. I explain that I’m the children’s laureate not poet laureate. They leave looking pleased for me, but slightly disappointed for themselves...” Frank Cottrell-Boyce’s diary newstatesman.com/diary/2024/07/…

“Like the late 1960s, the mid-2020s is an era of backlash. Who better to help us navigate such a moment than James Baldwin?” By David Olusoga newstatesman.com/culture/books/…