The Critic

The Critic is Britain's new highbrow monthly current affairs magazine for politics, art and literature. Dedicated to rigorous content, first rate writing and unafraid to ask the questions others won't.

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The Critic

Buildings for butchers • How should we judge the grandiose building projects of murderous dictators?

Miriam Elia on…

Letters

Justice over the internet • Civil cases could soon be resolved quickly and cheaply through online “portals”

Woman About Town

THE DIARY OF DILYN THE DOG

From Worms to woke

Women should not be for sale • We must challenge the Left’s view of prostitution as “progressive” and “sex work” as liberating

EVERYDAY LIES WITH THEODORE DALRYMPLE

Beauties and the beasts • Richard Negus says our urge to anthropomorphise animals and characterise them as “good” or “bad” obscures the fact that we are all part of the same complex ecosystem

WHY I FEAR THIS CENSORS’ CHARTER • Nadine Dorries’s chilling Online Safety Bill invites professional activists to wipe anything they deem wrongthink from the internet

Celebrating the cycle of life • The universal realities of life, love and death are at the core of the strength of the monarchy

GOOD AND EVIL ON THE NEW FRONTIER • Our current ethical guidelines are hopelessly inadequate for a new era of unimaginable technological change

Laughter is a fascist hate crime

A SINGULAR MODERN MASTER • Architect John Outram fused technology and tradition to create his own unique style

DEDICATION’S WHAT YOU NEED • Down with the gratitude-bloat of authors’ endless lists of acknowledgements

THE MONSTER THAT LURKS WITHIN US • The enduring popularity of fantasy and horror fiction proves that we still live in the long, dark shadow of the Gothic novel

BOOKSHOPS REMAINDERED • The second-hand book trade has lost much of its romance and charm, not to mention eccentric establishments and their owners

Seeing the big picture • The most enduring historical work reveals eternal truths about the human condition

Fenella Jeavons Sponsorship Facilitator

The Colston 4 and the fog of law • Charles Wide argues the politicised trial of the Bristol statue topplers shows the law surrounding protests is mired in confusion

DE-GOULDING: AN INCOMPLETE CODA • Part two of Mahan Esfahani’s deconstruction of the modern association of pianist Glenn Gould with Bach’s Goldberg Variations

Germany’s crisis of conscience • DANIEL JOHNSON says an unholy alliance of Berlin capitalists and intellectuals has disastrously misjudged the Ukraine war

Illiteracy of the tax-cut lobby • Slashing taxes cannot make a nation better off. Instead we must increase production

A REAL WORLD OF CONSCIOUSNESS • Communism in Poland was brought down by an underground network of learning, journalism and culture that flourished in defiance of state control

STUDIO • The Venice Biennale 2022

Adam Dant on …

Unearthly study of life and death • The characters are tweedy, the dialogue leaden, but there is more to Beautiful Star than meets the eye — and good reason why Mishima regarded it as his masterpiece

High politics and unholy power plays • The British exorcised their nightmares about their security east of Suez by dominating the pathways to India that ran through the Ottoman Middle East

Raw and immersive tale of the Civil War

And never the twain shall meet? • Hollywood has decided to adapt its content to prevent offence: there has been no truly critical portrayal of China in a big-budget movie since the 2000s

The solipsistic siren

Surviving the love of a psychopath

The...