From the archive: The poetic purity of John Clare
June 1964: The poet and critic Donald Davie reflects on the genius of John Clare
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London’s pizza scene is in search of a soul
We are in danger of confusing skill with flair
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Wolf Moon and the fight against Franco
Julio Llamazares’ 1985 novel – newly translated in English – is a refusal to forget the brutality of the Spanish…
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Chris Kraus’s autofictional crimes
Is the American writer’s new book, The Four Spent the Day Together, a true-crime novel or a description of her…
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Wayne Thiebaud’s slices of Americana
The painter’s neon-lit patisseries and pies captured the abundance of the US in the postwar decades
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After the Hunt offers debate but no engagement
Luca Guadagnino’s talky Me Too drama sacrifices interest to academic point-scoring
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The Importance of Being Hyper-Earnest
Max Webster’s queer reimagining of the Oscar Wilde classic is an explosion of conflicting performances
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Tax the old
Britain cannot afford to bribe well-off pensioners any longer. Rachel Reeves must invest in the young
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An audience with Austria’s “rebel nuns”
The elderly sisters who defied Church authority are paragons of speaking truth to power
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Keir Starmer: the Downing Street terminator
Your weekly dose of gossip from around Westminster
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Letter of the week: Who truly believes in Britain?
Write to letters@newstatesman.co.uk to have your thoughts voiced in the New Statesman magazine
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Can Mary Barton save Britain’s badgers?
Parliament’s longest-standing protester is fighting to end the culls – but Labour’s Steve Reed is biting back
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How dating apps killed romance
As swiping wanes, people are searching for connection where it’s always existed: in real life
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Why I always make time to dream
Also this week: Empowering artists to challenge tyranny, and a bumper year for apples
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The prophecies of Paul Kingsnorth
In his new book, Against the Machine, the former ecologist blames technology for the coming climate apocalypse
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On patrol with Labour’s Mike Tapp
The migration minister is hawkish on protecting Britain’s borders – but rejects Reform’s politics of division
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The living hostages have returned, but Israel is divided
The capture of so many civilians on 7 October transformed Israeli society’s sense of itself
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Powell vs Phillipson is an old battle reborn
Soft leftism is colliding with the spirit of early Blairism.
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Jonathan Powell and Tony Blair at the court of Donald Trump
The Brits who helped broker the deal in Gaza
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Thatcher-land
The market town of Grantham gave us Margaret Thatcher. One hundred years after her birth, what is left there of…
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