The Critic Current Issue – Dec/Jan’25 issue

The Christmas double issue of The Critic is out now, filled with stimulating reading for the festive season, including a bumper section of book reviews and a round-up of the best non-fiction of 2024. John Self acclaims the late novelist Paul Bailey, DJ Taylor asks how the art of literary biography will cope with the unadventurous lives of most modern writers and Jaspreet Singh Boparai revisits Shakespeare’s vision of Christmas.

Also, David Scullion goes behind the scenes in Robert Jenrick’s failed Conservative leadership campaign whilst Dan Hitchens paints a portrait of life among Conservative intellectuals during the 1970s. Norman Lebrecht asks why no great symphonies are written aby more, David Elstein uncovers some alarming statistics in the BBC’s funding, Lisa Hilton is underwhelmed by Quod, Alexander Chula searches for the remains of an Anglican warrior bishop who took on African slave traders, Boris Starling remembers the West Indies cricketer, Malcolm Marshall, Toby Young worries about QPR’s form and Henry Jefferies marks the passing of London’s bike couriers.