Reimagining John Lennon
Kevin Barry's inventive novel Beatlebone makes the singer someone worth reading about again.
Culture
We are here because you were there: a retrospective of black British art
Holding an exhibition that celebrates black British art at the Guildhall, with its colonial legacy, is an act akin to resistance
The Winter 2015 New Humanist is out now!
Should machines replicate people?; What history tells us about refugees; Mary Beard on Ancient Rome; the myth of "pure" religion; what happens when the Sun goes out; and more...
Mark Doty’s triumphal homecoming
A new collection from Doty, the living poet who has arguably done most to find a way of writing about gay urban life.
Ice tennis, eel-pulling, and Italian cat-headbutting: a history of forgotten sports
As a new book reminds us, sport is a useful barometer of moral and social progress.
Ukraine’s generation without protection
The talented young director Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy is charting Ukraine’s turbulent recent history.
The lessons of online disgrace
Jon Ronson's new book shows that everyone is fair game.
Jenny Diski’s brave scepticism
Jenny Diski's essays, fiction and non-fiction break down the idea of genre itself.
The strange death of British satire
Satire today is dominated by a narrow elite. No longer a threat to authority, it is a means for the establishment to protect itself.
Mad Max and the function of cinematic dystopia
Dystopian films reflect the anxieties of their times; but the best ones sneak the message in through the back door.