‘Hope can be quite a toxic construct. It’s often invested in preserving the present, but what version of the present are we hoping to continue?’
Tom Nutting speaks to poet and educator, Caleb Parkin.
Archive | You Name It by Nadine Gordimer
‘At this time my husband had taken it upon himself to send for his mother to supervise the children and the atmosphere in the house was one of blinding, deafening, obsessive antagonism.’
Short fiction by Nadine Gordimer.
Interview | Gustav Parker Hibbett: ‘I grew up with other people being the authority in defining my identity.’
Jamie Cameron speaks to Gustav Parker Hibbett about form, identity and what it felt like to be shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize for their collection, High Jump as Icarus Story.
Review | ‘Song is a strong thing’: On the T. S. Eliot Prize Shortlist by Dominic Leonard
‘Whether in subject, form, style or quality, a shortlist can at least set out the stall of contemporary poetry and say: this is, for better or worse, what’s going on.’
Dominic Leonard reviews the 2024 T. S. Eliot Prize shortlist.
Archive | A Message from T. S. Eliot
‘Readers must be encouraged to read books, not merely to talk about books they have not read.’
A message from T. S. Eliot, from the February 1954 edition of The London Magazine.
Archive | Texts for Nothing: VI by Samuel Beckett
‘Words can be blotted and the mad thoughts they invent, all you have to do is say you said nothing and so say nothing again.’
Samuel Beckett in the August 1967 edition of The London Magazine.
Interview | Jon Day: ‘I hate the idea of going places.’
‘Great things to learn as a writer: how to meet a deadline, how to be edited, how not to be precious about your prose.’
Rose Brookfield interviews Jon Day.
The Best Books of 2024
This year, we asked our 2024 reviewers to select their favourite book of the year. Selections include Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst, Adam by Gboyega Odubanjo and A Question of Palestine by Edward Said, as well as collections of essays on French theory, re-issued aphorisms and photographic monographs.
Archive | Poem by John Betjeman
‘Is he too ill to know that he is dying? / And, if he does know, does he really care?’
A poem by John Betjeman, from the May 1957 issue of The London Magazine.
Podcast | Paul Stephenson
‘Bereavement, grief: it’s extremely self-indulgent.’
On this episode of The London Magazine Podcast, we talk to poet and editor Paul Stephenson about poetic form, absurdity, grief and more.
Review | The Cesspits of London by Hugh Dunkerley
‘The portrayals of Victorian London in The Night Mechanic are as visceral and powerful as many of those conjured by Dickens.’
Hugh Dunkerley reviews ‘The Night Mechanic’.
Interview | Rose Electra Harris: Big Canvas, Bright Colours
‘One of the things that I get torn about is that I feel really lucky that I’m an artist, but often wonder if it’s quite a selfish thing to be doing.’
Zadie Loft speaks to Rose Electra Harris.
Review | All Is Not Well by Zadie Loft
‘In the first half, Helen’s pursuit of and infatuation for Bertram seems sweet, comical and harmless; by the second, her actions have been shown to be what they always were: sexual harassment and assault.’
Zadie Loft reviews All’s Well That Ends Well.
Fiction | I Just Died by Theo Macdonald
‘Sometimes he would sit on the sofa in his dressing gown and mumble something about the emotional labour of the commute.’
New fiction by Theo Macdonald.
Interview | Orlando Reade in Conversation by Marina Scholtz
‘I was told very early on by people in publishing that there is no market for literary criticism – none.’
Marina Scholtz speaks to Orlando Reade.
Review | Wild Seas, Wilder Cities by Judy Waite
‘The potential for individuals to make a difference is celebrated and echoed throughout this collection.’
Judy Waite reviews ‘Wild Seas, Wilder Cities’.
Archive | Reflections by Louis MacNeice
‘I look in the mirror at night / And see two rooms’
This poem by Louis MacNeice originally appeared in the May 1960 edition of The London Magazine.
Archive | The Recreation Ground by Graham Swift
‘Father killed her. Not with the knife, no, nor with the pistol, nor even with the blunt instrument. It was the old weapon – hatred.’
Short fiction by Graham Swift.
Podcast | Joshua Jones
‘I don’t want to be a representative for a nation state.’
We chatted to Joshua Jones, author of Local Fires, about the benefits of multiple POVs and interconnected stories, how not to get sued when writing autofiction and his love of Chicago indie rock band, Joan of Arc.
Interview | Eliza Clark: Seven Questions
‘There’s a great deal of horror to be found when desire is misaimed or curdles – our desires are often an expression of the systems of power we exist in.’
Eliza Clark interviewed by Zadie Loft.
Fiction | Un by Louie Conway
‘The baby has come to understand the world as reducible into categories, an indefinitely vast space populated by discrete objects with dedicated names and stable locations.’
Runner-up in the Brick Lane Bookshop Short Story Prize 2024: Louie Conway’s ‘Un’.
Interview | Farkhondeh Ahmadzadeh on Manuscripts and Miniatures
‘In this complex world where human kind is divided into tiny sections, I hope we all can find the unity we are meant to have.’
Eric Block interviews artist Farkhondeh Ahmadzadeh and curator Esen Kaya.
Review | I for I: Occupations that Blind by Zoe Valery
‘The writing of Pleasure Gardens – and its reading – constitutes an act of resistance; a reclaiming of the digital narrative space that has been blacked out by the state and overwritten by its propaganda machine.’
Zoe Valery reviews ‘Pleasure Gardens’.
Archive | Raymond Chandler by Ian Fleming
‘In the end, said Chandler, as one grew older, one grew out of gangsters and blondes and guns and, since they were the chief ingredients of thrillers, short of space fiction, that was that.’
Ian Fleming recounts his friendship with Raymond Chandler.