Selected Journalism and Reviews

I’ve been writing for the national press for over twenty years, from long form essays to hundreds of book reviews. My column for the Guardian, The Last Word, focuses on reading and emotion. See below for links to a few examples of my work, from Kylie to Knausgaard…

Against the Cult of Self Improvement. Commissioned review essay about the psychoanalyst Adam Phillips, written for Prospect magazine


How Kylie Minogue saved me. Commissioned Long form essay for The Economist 1834 magazine about the relationship between pop music and grief. Click this link to the Economist or here for a full text version

A review of Karl Knausgaard’s Spring and Summer for the TLS

Geoffrey Hill’s Love Poetry. Review for The New Statesman.

Iris Murdoch’s Letters. A review in the Times Literary Supplement

Lionel Shriver’s Fiction. A review of The Post Birthday World for The New Statesman

Reading in Bed: An essay on bedtime reading for Unbounded magazine.

On Abortion. A feature piece for Grazia about the experience of having an abortion.

P. G. Wodehouse’s pyjamas. A piece about editing Wodehouse’s letters.