---
title: "Philip Pullman on the imagination, Charlie Brooker on mental health, and a world without work"
date: "2015-01-27T10:10:06+00:00"
modified: "2015-01-27T10:10:06+00:00"
url: "https://newhumanist.org.uk/2015/01/27/philip-pullman-on-the-imagination-charlie-brooker-on-mental-health-and-a-world-without-work/"
post_id: 6350
categories: ["Uncategorised"]
---

# Philip Pullman on the imagination, Charlie Brooker on mental health, and a world without work

1\. [“Writing is despotism, but reading is democracy”](/articles/4799/writing-is-despotism-but-reading-is-democracy)



Philip Pullman’s essay on reading, writing, and the imagination was the cover feature of our Winter issue.

2\. [Charlie Brooker: Tea and empathy](/articles/4816/charlie-brooker-tea-and-empathy)

In another feature from our Winter issue, Ariane Sherine meets Charlie Brooker. Known as a savagely funny satirist who takes aim at modern irrationality, in person, he’s a rather more gentle soul.

3\. [Imagine… a world without work](/articles/4810/imagine-a-world-without-work)

For many people, jobs are boring, low-paid, humiliating and increasingly scarce. *New Humanist* asks three young writers: what if we just did away with them?

4\. [Boys, keep out! A feminist history of the handbag](/articles/4807/boys-keep-out-a-feminist-history-of-the-handbag)

No-nonsense rationalists might sneer at the passion for women’s handbags, but they began as a way of making men obsolete, writes Sally Feldman.

5\. [Sins of the fathers: child sex abuse in the Catholic Church](/articles/4819/sins-of-the-fathers-child-sex-abuse-in-the-catholic-church)

Francis Beckett reviews two new books which highlight the horrific scale of child sex abuse within Catholic institutions in Britain.

*For the top 10 most-read pieces of 2014, [click here.](/articles/4805/the-year-in-review-new-humanists-10-most-read-stories-of-2014)*

*For Decembers’s top long-reads, [click here](/articles/4788/colombias-displaced-communities-industrial-action-heroes-and-the-dark-side-of-buddhism).*

*For more on our Winter issue – out now –[ click here](/articles/4781/the-winter-2014-new-humanist-is-out-now).*