Jewish Chronicle: Found and Lost review
Notting Hill Editions was launched in 2011 to revive the art of essay writing, producing elegant, small books containing such subject matter as Deborah Levy’s response to George Orwell’s Why … Continue reading
Standpoint Magazine: Tunnel Vision
Winston Churchill’s half-smoked cigar sold for $12,000 at a US auction in October. A hand-written note by Albert Einstein on the topic of happiness (“a quiet and modest life brings … Continue reading
Times Literary Supplement: On cultural appropriation
Compliment or theft? At a literary festival in Brisbane last year, Lionel Shriver faced a backlash when she argued that accusations of cultural appropriation threatened “our right to write fiction … Continue reading
Jewish Chronicle: The Attack of the 50ft Women – Driving on equality street
At first glance, The Attack of the 50ft Women, by Catherine Mayer, looks like a sequel to Naomi Alderman’s Baileys Prize-winning novel, The Power, about women gaining physical power over … Continue reading
Standpoint Magazine: Ironies of Ideology
On a recent visit to the Royal Academy, I noticed a tall, elegantly dressed man who spent quite some time admiring a square object attached to the wall. I wondered … Continue reading
Times Literary Supplement: Of lesbians and constipation
Public opinion on journalists has always been influenced by how they – or should I say we – are represented in novels, films and popular culture. In her PhD-thesis-turned-book, Sarah … Continue reading
Standpoint Magazine: A diaspora of pain and joy
In this, his first novel, Gerald Jacobs takes us to the Baghdad of the early 20th century, where Jews made up a quarter of the population, and lived amicably alongside … Continue reading
The Economist’s 1843: The malleability of our minds
A new show about consciousness takes a terrifying look at how scientists, philosophers and artists deal with “the hard problem” In the 17th century, Descartes famously argued that the body … Continue reading
Jewish Chronicle: Forty Autumns
Nina Willner was only five years old when she learnt that the reason she had never met her grandparents, aunts and uncles was because they were trapped behind “a curtain” … Continue reading
Standpoint Magazine: Golden Gogol
A new production of The Nose, Shostakovich’s opera based on Gogol’s mesmerisingly surreal short story, was part of this season at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. A Tarkovsky … Continue reading
Times Literary Supplement: How to date a feminist
There were ten men in an audience of about a hundred at How To Date a Feminist, a new play by Samantha Ellis (the author of How To Be a Heroine) … Continue reading
Jewish Chronicle: An interview with Deborah Levy
Hot Milk, the book for which Deborah Levy has been nominated for this year’s Man Booker Prize, explores hypochondria and the troubled relationship between a mother and daughter. It is … Continue reading
Times Literary Supplement: Big flat lies
In Newton’s Apple and Other Myths about Science, twenty-eight academics refute some of the most pervasive myths about science. Isaac Newton discovered gravity, when he sat in the orchard and … Continue reading
Money Observer: On fine wine, rare stamps and coins
Fine wine and rare stamps have been used to pass on wealth for many generations. Janet Yellen, who cautiously keeps interest rates down at the US Federal Reserve, owns a … Continue reading
Money Observer: Pensions policy unfairly skewed towards baby boomers, says former minister
On 2 March 2016 the Work and Pensions Committee took evidence from two former ministers and experts in the ‘intergenerational fairness’ debate, David Willetts and Steve Webb. The session was … Continue reading
Standpoint: Clearing the Fog of War
“The Horror Of The Ukraine”: The man-made famine in 1932-33, part of a wider famine across the USSR, killed millions. Through conversations with the people he meets in Ukraine, … Continue reading
Times Literary Supplement: Whose London is it anyway?
Tucked away between office buildings by Euston station is where I found the Camden People’s Theatre. It’s a little place with colourful bunting, a cheerful selection of chairs and flowery … Continue reading
Financial Times: How to create a golden age
What makes a genius? Since at least the 19th century, some have said it is down to genetics, while others have argued that upbringing is decisive. More recently, the idea … Continue reading
Standpoint Magazine: The Story Of The Short Story
When short stories were still widely published in magazines, they had the capacity to react to unfolding events, writes Philip Hensher, the novelist and critic who edited these two volumes. … Continue reading
Standpoint Magazine: Further Adventures
One summer afternoon in 1862, the mathematician Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) took the daughters of his dean at Christ Church, Oxford, on a boat trip down the Thames. He entertained … Continue reading
Money Observer: Is it time to invest in biotech?
Drug prices pose an ethical dilemma. On the one hand, treatments should be affordable to those who need them, but on the other, companies will have to finance many failed … Continue reading
Financial Times: ‘All You Can Lose is Your Heart’ by KayLynn Deveney
The photographs of storybook homes are a fleeting vision of an American dream that aspired to a ranch of one’s own “Storybook ranch houses”, built in the 1950s and … Continue reading
Times Literary Supplement: Does philosophy have to be obscure?
I recently went to a public lecture at LSE hosted by the Forum for European Philosophy. The discussion was entitled “Does philosophy have to be obscure?” It struck me as … Continue reading
Standpoint Magazine: Found In Translation
Guy de Maupassant is considered the greatest short story writer in French literature. He is often said to have defined the modern short story and influenced the likes of Chekhov, … Continue reading
MoneyWeek: Lithium use set to soar
Lithium plays a growing role in the global economy: it’s a crucial component in the batteries of our phones, gadgets and electric cars. Argentina, Bolivia and Chile hold about 70% … Continue reading
MoneyWeek: Japan’s lesson in “people’s QE” for Jeremy Corbyn
The idea of “people’s QE” has reignited interest in radical monetary policy. Marina Gerner looks at the lessons from Japan’s version of people’s QE – the voucher schemes of the … Continue reading
Times Literary Supplement: Where there is no why
Like the tales told to Dante by the souls he meets in The Divine Comedy, literature provides us with mirrors to discover our own secret features, Alberto Manguel argues. The … Continue reading
Standpoint Magazine: Israel’s Impish Ice-Breaker
The first time I came across the Israeli short-story writer Etgar Keret was through a comment he made about Franz Kafka. When Kafka died in 1924, he left his diaries, … Continue reading
Times Literary Supplement: No strings attached
In Heinrich von Kleist’s essay The Puppet Theatre, published in 1810, the character Mr C wanders through a public park, where he meets the recently appointed first dancer of the … Continue reading
Times Literary Supplement: Engage neutral
In his previous book, The Shallows, Nicholas Carr argued that the Internet diminishes our power to concentrate and contemplate. Now he turns his eye to automation: “If you want to … Continue reading
Standpoint Magazine: Underrated – Jackie Mason
He may be America’s greatest living comedian, but if you relied on British television you might never have heard of Jackie Mason. In this country, he must be the most … Continue reading
The Economist’s Intelligent Life Magazine: Saul Bellow’s Introspection
Notes on a Voice: Marina Gerner pins down the work of a Nobel prize-winning novelist who revealed the inside through the outside “All I had to do was be there … Continue reading
Times Literary Supplement: How to be an intellectual
“Journalism and scholarship usually inhabit different planets”, Jeffrey J. Williams writes. Journalists and academics have different gods and languages. While journalists favour speed, paying homage to Hermes, scholars look to … Continue reading
Standpoint Magazine: Wired But Not Secured
In a Simpsons episode entitled “Specs and the City”, the evil owner of Springfield’s nuclear power plant Mr Burns has a surprise for his employees. He presents them with a pair of … Continue reading
Standpoint Magazine: The Medium Isn’t Always the Message
“We have just seen the civilised world gathered as one family around a common sick bed, hope and fear alternately fluctuating in unison the world over as hopeful or … Continue reading
Times Literary Supplement: Book Review of Simon Blackburn’s “Mirror Mirror”
Simon Blackburn credits L’Oréal’s slogan, “because you’re worth it”, as a source of outrage and inspiration for Mirror, Mirror: The uses and abuses of self-love. Drawing on the myth on Narcissus, … Continue reading
Media & Policy Project: In Apps We Trust?
Wading through a sea of data in Ofcom’s Adults’ Media Use and Attitudes 2014 Report, I stumbled across some surprising findings on apps. This year is the first time apps were covered … Continue reading
Standpoint Magazine: Beards need not apply
Women who engage in public speaking are seen as “freakish androgynes”, argued classics professor Mary Beard in her recent London Review of Books speech at the British Library. Throughout the centuries … Continue reading
Times Literary Supplement: Book Review of Martha Nussbaum’s “Political Emotions”
“The public culture needs to be nourished and sustained by something that lies deep in the human heart and taps its most powerful sentiments, including both passion and humor”, Martha … Continue reading
Philosophy Now Magazine: What did Mary know?
Imagine a girl called Mary. She is a brilliant neuroscientist and a world expert on colour vision. But because she grew up entirely in a black and white room, she … Continue reading
Standpoint Magazine: Phoney Freedom
When telephones were still a rare possession, the French artist Jean-Louis Forain decided to install a telephone in his town house. Wanting to surprise his good friend Edgar Degas with … Continue reading
The Economist’s Intelligent Life Magazine: The CEO and the Not-So-Smart-Quote
Sometimes a chief executive must hope that an unwise quote from a while back would just curl up and die. Seven years ago, Mike Jeffries, the CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch, … Continue reading
The Economist’s Intelligent Life Magazine: The Latest Beauty Product: Concern
On Sunday, the cosmetics company Dove released a three-minute video on YouTube called “Dove Real Beauty Sketches”. By Friday it had nearly 9m views. The video features a former forensic artist from the … Continue reading
The Economist’s Intelligent Life Magazine: A Women’s Library? No, Thanks
There has been a “Women’s Library” in London since 1926, but this May it moves from its own premises in Aldgate to the fourth floor of the London School of … Continue reading
New York Observer: Interviews on student loan debt
Marina Gerner spoke with Thomas Blum, Vice President of Administration at Sarah Lawrence College and Roseanne Ackerley, Director of Financial Aid at Hebrew Union College, about the financial woes of students today and … Continue reading
The Beaver: Michael Sandel the public philosopher
The first thought that popped into my head when Michael Sandel walked onto the stage to deliver his lecture at the LSE was that he looks nothing like Mr Burns! … Continue reading
Marina’s Monetary Musings: How to become an ‘effective altruist’
Large charities embroiled in scandals have brought charitable giving into disrepute, from Oxfam staff who sexually exploited victims of the Haiti earthquake, to harassment at Save the Children. But the … Continue reading
Money Observer: How to close the gender pay gap in finance
Last week saw the deadline for companies with over 250 employees in the UK to report their gender pay gap. The figures revealed that HSBC has a gender pay gap … Continue reading
Money Observer: Parliamentary committee calls for ‘default fund’ at retirement
A new report by the Work & Pensions Select Committee is proposing the creation of a ‘default decumulation pathway’; in other words a default investment fund for those who do … Continue reading
Money Observer: Grandparents can claim pension boost for looking after grandchildren
A grandparent who looks after a grandchild, so that the child’s parent can go back to work, can boost the amount of state pension they receive. By applying for a … Continue reading
Marina’s Monetary Musings: The avocado cruise
Yet more unhelpful advice for millennials: Barclays has joined the admonishing chorus by announcing that millennial couples need to stop spending an average £3,500 on annual cruises or £5,946 a … Continue reading
Money Observer: Why women have less than half the pension of their male colleagues
The average amount in a woman’s workplace pension scheme is less than half that of their male colleagues (£53,000 compared to £120,000), according to a new report by Close Brothers … Continue reading
Money Observer: Yet more unhelpful advice for millennials
Over the last two years a chorus of wealth experts have urged millennials to save money instead of eating out. But such advice doesn’t solve the systemic intergenerational inequality in … Continue reading
Money Observer: Income funds that don’t trash the environment
Reader: ‘I am a smallish scale investor looking to maintain income in retirement, using easily understandable income funds and investment trusts, which I usually hold long-term. I also aim to … Continue reading
Money Observer: Fertility and other surprising ways to spot a recession
Economists look to house prices, GDP and retail sales to predict the next recession. But a new study says we could look elsewhere to know when the next downturn is … Continue reading
Money Observer: Three hot growth opportunities for sustainable investment
Some people avoid plastic bags, while others have stopped smoking. As awareness around environmental concerns is increasing, investors are considering more carefully how to put their money to work in … Continue reading
