Opinion

TRYING TO UNDERSTAND TRUMP’S WORLD MAGA and kingship

It hasn’t gone unnoticed, even among the Republican faithful, that America’s presidency—once noted for its constitutional decorum—has begun to resemble a royal court. More...
Opinion

You made me hate you. I didn’t want to do it

Stephen Games writes We wrote in our last issue about our misgivings with the BBC’s television adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall series and the...
Lingualia

Introducing heterosemes! Yes, we’re introducing problems

Until the author of Lingualia brought it to our attention, we at Booklaunch Towers had not come across the word “het eroseme” or the...
Feature

K.J. Kelly on writing the funniest Irish novel to come out of Surrey in a century

A second-generation Irishman on the subject of ‘cultural appropriation’ BOOK DATA A GIRL’S OWN WAR K.J. KELLY EnvelopeBooks 7 September 2023 Softback, 246 pages 9781915023148 RRP £12.95 No one finds it odder than...
Opinion

The LRB

When a friend behaves weirdly, it’s not unreasonable to call them on it—true? For decades, we admired the London Review of Books for the...
Edition 23

John Betjeman reviews humorous books in 1938

Any review of funny books must bristle with the prejudices of the reviewer and this review certainly bristles with mine. Were I, for instance,...
Edition 23

Time to ban sugar in publishing

Why is Italian publishing more seemly than publishing in Britain? Bookshops here are cacophonous: everywhere you turn, covers scream for attention, whether on tabletop displays...
Edition 23

Who wants to stay a millionaire?

Brooke Harrington, Professor of Sociology at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, discusses her new book on the money habits of the super-rich Less fortunate members of...
Edition 23

Can Muslim nations modernise?

Rumy Hasan is Associate Professor in the Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex Business School and Visiting Professorial Research Fellow at...
Edition 23

What has Rome ever done for us?

Catholicism is the largest religious group to be centralised under a single leader. Its 1.4 billion adherents are outnumbered by the world’s 1.9 billion...
News

Architectural Book Awards Shortlists

Once again, Booklaunch is honoured to sponsor the Architectural Book Awards, which we launched to acclaim in 2023. The awards scheme celebrates excellence in...
Edition 22

Lost Levant

In the 18th century, young gentlemen went off to see what was left of the Classical world. In 2003, Rupert de Borchgrave went off...
Edition 22

Artist Spy Prisoner

America and Russia have entered into a pact that threatens to dominate the world by lying, bullying and intimidation. We’ve been here before CTLASSIC FROM...
Edition 22

The West & The Rest

When you’ve spent much of your career as a senior exec in the tobacco business, you’re bound to see the world, and your place...
Edition 22

After years of consensus about Western values, rationalism is in retreat and a new paganism is afoot

The trial was for sorcery, the accused was a woman. Her name was Samanta and she was a peasant from a backwater village called...
Edition 23

Wolf Hall: Authenticity and artifice in costume drama

Towards the end of 2024, audiences binge-watched the BBC’s adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy, about the rise and fall of Thomas Cromwell...

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