Both familiar and strange: Elton John’s “Your Song” and the elusive art of hit-making
I had dismissed it as too obvious, but then, the interesting thing about “Your Song” is how far from…
ByNew Statesman Magazine
In this week’s magazine
The Corbyn delusion
Lessons for Iran from Trump’s wooing of Kim Jong-un, the North Korean dictator
As Iran’s leadership contemplate the next steps in their developing confrontation with the United States, they must wonder whether …
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First Thoughts: Corbyn’s unlikely supporters, Antarctica’s lost sea ice and the decline of Sunday newspapers
When informed of the death of the notoriously taciturn former US president Calvin Coolidge in 1933, the satirist Dorothy…
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The pig-faced lady helped me understand why my own shifting body was a source of shame
“Why are you so obsessed with pigs?” my ex-boyfriend once asked. He was looking over my shoulder while I…
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Leader: What does Labour want?
The Conservative leadership contest is defined by fantastical promises over Brexit and reckless pledges of lower taxes and higher…
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The return of disaster capitalism
Almost ten years after the introduction of austerity, Philip Alston, the UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty, visited the…
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Vladimir Putin’s quest to build an anti-liberal empire
Vladimir Putin arrived at the G20 in Osaka, Japan, as the victor of an ideological world war. This was…
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Commons Confidential: Corbyn’s summertime blues
It’s Jeremy Corbyn’s morale not his health that’s causing concern in the Labour leader’s inner circle. One shadow cabinet…
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Art of offence: the political cartoon controversy
On 7 January 2015, 12 people were murdered by Islamist extremists in the Paris offices of the French satirical…
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BBC Two’s Inside the Bank of England is perversely soothing
Watching Inside the Bank of England (2 July, 9.30pm) is like visiting a spa – unless, of course, you’re the…
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Spider-Man: Far From Home is an exasperating school trip sequel
The visually ravishing animated feature Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse won an Oscar this year – a far cry from…
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The Witch Wave is a podcast that insists witches are real
“Are you a bewitching person? Welcome to the show where magic is real!” To a gripping American podcast, presented…
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NS Recommends: New books from Daniel Mendelsohn, Donatella Di Pietrantonio and Naomi Wood
The Bad Boy of Athens Daniel Mendelsohn Daniel Mendelsohn’s An Odyssey, an account of how he and his father…
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Letter of the week: Why we all need history
It is easy to say that politicians only refer to history when it suits them, yet Helen Thompson’s article…
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I decided to venture outside of my usual garden centres and buy a few lesser-known varieties of rosemary. After all, how hard could it be
Rosemary, they say, is for remembrance, and my story is certainly not one I shall easily forget. In truth, it…
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I was only meant to stay for a night, but here I still am, in the gloom and glamour of Brighton
I’m in an attic in Brighton, trying to wedge the window open wide enough to allow the slimmest breath…
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Steve Jones Q&A: “A faint grey square captures the very essence of my being“
Steve Jones was born in Aberystwyth in 1946 and studied zoology at the University of Edinburgh. As a television…
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Basking in my son’s First, I wonder – what kind of sadist put exam season in the summer?
So today I am bracing myself for the drive to Manchester in order to pick up the eldest son…
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Remote consultations may result in diagnosis, but they can come at a personal cost to the patient
The telephone call was to Abigail – in her mid-twenties, six weeks pregnant and with vaginal bleeding that had…
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