Josh Allan

I find modern replicas of ancient houses to be fascinating. The Villa Kerylos in France was based on the townhouses of ancient Delos.

Lionel Shriver on what Britain looks like from Portugal thetimes.com/article/0bd95f…

Leaving aside the cynical content of the post itself, I really despise this one-sentence-per-paragraph style of writing you only ever see on the Internet. Surrounding your meaningless words with white space doesn't make them any more meaningful.

all you people have is constant threats. if you have to browbeat people into abandoning their passions and interests, are you really offering a useful "tool"?

My brain refuses to perceive the Portuguese “acordar” as “wake up”, it keeps interpreting it as “remember”. So I read about characters remembering something in the morning or in the middle of the night without ever finding out what exactly they remembered.

A small Middle Eastern nation has suffered genocidal violence, lost most of its territory and continues to be menaced by its aggressive neighbour. But you won't read much about the fate of Armenia. My latest for @TheCriticMag thecritic.co.uk/we-must-not-fo…

A rogues' gallery of Murdoch characters to celebrate her birthday.

“The three saddest words in the English language,” said Gore Vidal, “are 'Joyce Carol Oates'”

🚨 For the first time since records began, the UK is no longer classified as an “Open” country in a leading global ranking of freedom of expression. This latest drop continues a pattern of decline since 2014, across indicators including media freedom, internet censorship,…

14% approval rating of a government elected with the support of one-sixth of the population where fully two-thirds of voters voted against them, ‘winning’ on promises they have since broken. I simply refuse to accept that this is a legitimate right to rule in any meaningful way.

The sudden silence of dozens of pro-independence X accounts on 12 June 2025 coincided with Israeli air and cyber strikes targeting Iranian military and communications infrastructure. ukdefencejournal.org.uk/dozens-of-pro-…

My Fellow Countrymen, The Islamic Republic has reached its end and is in the process of collapsing. Khamenei, like a frightened rat, has gone into hiding underground and has lost control of the situation. What has begun is irreversible. The future is bright, and together, we…

Proto-Indo-European was an ancient language that became the basis of Latin, German, Sanskrit, French, English and other languages. This graphic shows how a single PIE word, sker, evolved into skirt, scroll, carnival and dozens of other words. It's astonishing. Via Starkey Comics.

I wrote about E.L. Doctorow's great novel 'Ragtime' for Quillette.

I wrote this essay for the New Statesman about the collapse of the English Literature degree and the dawn of the post-literate society newstatesman.com/culture/books/…

We just hosted a dinner party, and someone said, “I wonder where the word raspberry comes from?” I leapt up, shouted, “LET’S FIND OUT” and ran to my study, emerging a moment later with Skeat’s Etymological Dictionary (1883). (This is why I don’t get invited to parties.)

Refusing to train our own staff and then stealing much needed healthcare workers from their home nations. Utterly indefensible.

Shakespeare was fine for an era that valued ravishingly beautiful language and astonishing insight into the human spirit but we have moved on from all that. Grow up

The cost of the Chagos 'deal' is 29 times the annual budget of the Bank of England.

Happy Oak Apple Day (aka Restoration Day)! Today we celebrate England's deliverance from republican tyranny and the glorious and happy restoration of the monarchy in 1660. It's both the birthday of Charles II and the anniversary of his restoration. Hurrah!