Durham is an odd place. Not odd in an exciting way — my kids always called it Dullham. But odd nonetheless. The city was shaped by two very different forces. The first is intellectual and religious. Durham is the shrine of Saint Cuthbert and the burial place of the Venerable Bede, home to an ancient … Read more
Albums of the Year Streaming platforms want music that doesn’t demand anything of you: records designed to soundtrack scrolling, workouts and shopping baskets, optimised for playlists rather than people. In 2025, the most interesting albums were the ones that resisted that logic — music that asked for attention, patience and sometimes discomfort, and in doing … Read more
Books of the Year: Reading at the End of the World 2025 was a strong year for books, particularly for writers circling the same big questions from different angles: reality and unreality, social collapse, the exhaustion of modern life, and the return of authoritarian politics in new guises. What follows isn’t a neat or balanced … Read more
