‘What am I to do? Shall I conquer an empire? Shall I build a temple? Shall I write a poem that will endure longer? The fragmentary nature of action saps my inclination to act, and every victory is merely a broken mirror in which I cannot see the whole of myself.’
From 1956, an archive piece by Marguerite Yourcenar.
‘A water company running up debts to enrich its investors is permissible, but a government that borrows to invest in the public realm, not so much.’
Sruti Basak interviews Hettie O’Brien.
‘Why would you do that – visit cemeteries?’ is a sentiment often expressed to me, voicing some kind of disgust, as if I did something like, I don’t know, collect vomit.
Konrad Muller interviews Mariana Enriquez.
‘It seemed to him that the girl he loved was a creation of his desire, his thoughts, and his faith and that the real girl now standing in front of him was hopelessly alien, hopelessly ambiguous. He hated her.’
From 1978, short fiction by Milan Kundera.
‘Once I knew I was writing about Crumb, I knew I wanted to write about perversion.’
Gabrielle Sicam on comics artist Robert Crumb.
‘Cities, as Brecht depicts them, live double lives. Their inhabitants live cheek to jowl and are given to exchanging pleasantries and meaningless conversation ad nauseam.’
Luke Dunne on Bertolt Brecht’s poem ‘Of Poor B.B.’
‘Postcolonial reinterpretations do not passively inherit the political meanings embedded in Shakespeare’s text but actively produce, constrain and radicalise them according to the political realities they choose to confront – or avoid.’
Ira Bhattacharjee on Aneil Karia’s and Riz Ahmed’s Hamlet.
‘The loneliness I felt, sitting at that table eating my sandwich, was breathtaking. It was a feeling I didn’t know I was capable of summoning.’
New short fiction by Sam Corbett.
‘The function of the writer is to help and foster knowledge. His kind of message is not an arrow that will necessarily reach the target. Literature is an awareness of the world. It isn’t an instrument with which to change it.’
From 1976, an interview with Geno Pampaloni.
‘Each author simply holds a looking glass towards the fabric of manhood, and Stuart’s glass seems to catch the light a little more.’
Laura Baliman reviews Boyhood by David Keenan and John of John by Douglas Stuart.
‘My face was not the most beautiful / but any person was entitled to think it was / and what terrifying pleasure in that.’
Nina Reljić’s winning poem in this year’s Poetry Prize.
‘Britain, whoever is in power, is a small-c conservative place.’
John Merrick on the 1926 General Strike.
Sixty-four years on from the original survey, The London Magazine speaks to fifteen poets, including Jorie Graham, Don Paterson, A. E. Stallings and more, about the state of contemporary poetry.
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On The London Magazine podcast, we speak to brilliant writers, poets and artists about their craft, inspiration and career so far. New episodes every month.
Ann Goldstein discusses the oxymoron of the ‘celebrated translator’, her early encounters with Italian through Dante and the story of how she became Ferrante’s translator. Goldstein reflects on Ferrante’s unique syntax and style, as well as the broader challenges of Italian–English translation.
‘This is where I say to any budding writers out there: write historical fiction!’
Gurnaik Johal on The London Magazine Podcast.
‘One of the things that the novel is about is different forms of chronology that we mark things by.’
Leo Robson on The London Magazine Podcast.
The London Magazine has a publication history spanning almost three hundred years, and has featured work by some of the most prominent names in literature, from John Keats to Hilary Mantel. In this curated selection, we share our favourite pieces from the TLM archive.
‘What am I to do? Shall I conquer an empire? Shall I build a temple? Shall I write a poem that will endure longer? The fragmentary nature of action saps my inclination to act, and every victory is merely a broken mirror in which I cannot see the whole of myself.’
From 1956, an archive piece by Marguerite Yourcenar.
‘It seemed to him that the girl he loved was a creation of his desire, his thoughts, and his faith and that the real girl now standing in front of him was hopelessly alien, hopelessly ambiguous. He hated her.’
From 1978, short fiction by Milan Kundera.
‘The function of the writer is to help and foster knowledge. His kind of message is not an arrow that will necessarily reach the target. Literature is an awareness of the world. It isn’t an instrument with which to change it.’
From 1976, an interview with Geno Pampaloni.
