Cosmo Adair
@cosiadair
hack @thetimes / @NewStatesman / @lit_review / @Review31
I reviewed Jonathan Meades's "Empty Wigs" for @thetimes ... It is filthy, squalid, offensive, and somewhat plotless. But it's very funny too. thetimes.com/culture/books/…
Read @OBEhizele on the new (old) racism of the British right via @NewStatesman newstatesman.com/politics/2025/…
I wrote about the late Michael Haag’s unfinished biography of Lawrence Durrell for @thetimes this week ‘That mean shabby little island’ — why Lawrence Durrell hated England thetimes.com/article/69e63c…
My review-essay on Geoff Dyer’s Homework from the June/July issue of @TheLondonMag is now online, with reference to Raymond Williams, Roland Barthes, Keats, Thelonious Monk, Where Eagles Dare, etc. Some are calling it ‘subtly authoritative’. Read it here: thelondonmagazine.org/article/review…
Every aspiring young British male should spend three transformative months in Napoli.
Scott mctominay #mctominay #Wimbledon
A star is born
In the @NewStatesman for the first time! I reviewed Drayton and Mackenzie, a somewhat disappointing novel about friendship and the financial crisis. Link below.
‘Who the hell dug up this guy and invited him to pronounce, in his dunce cap of humiliation, on the future of British politics’? On Neil Hamilton, David Starkey, Thatcher and Thatcherism for this week’s @NewStatesman sketch: newstatesman.com/politics/uk-po…
An interview (in full) with Alexander Theroux via email, as he prefers not to be called.
The popular criticism is always that the adaptation hasn't been faithful to the original. But what if the adapter has correctly detected defects not noticed by the general reader, such as story and character lapses masked by prose.
I've written a piece about the how and why of the reviews I write: pitching for commissions, the process of reading and writing, and the rules I try to stick to along the way. Link in next post…
My review of @leorobsonwriter’s debut novel, The Boys. open.substack.com/pub/york/p/ech…
Martin Amis. The Zone of Interest. An almost perfect novel. Especially for now.
What book do you keep recommending to people?
very cheering piece by @HenryEOliver, who I’m increasingly convinced is right about all things literary
“The task for those of us who care deeply about literature is to make it relevant in this new world.” I made the case for literary optimism in @NewStatesman
I wrote about Joyce Carol Oates’s latest novel, Fox, in this month’s @Lit_Review literaryreview.co.uk/bad-education
The novelist Philip Roth with R. B. Kitaj's portrait of him, 1985.
I reviewed Sarah Vine’s hideous new memoir for @NewStatesman newstatesman.com/politics/2025/…
Larkin' about instead of washing up. I like this one a lot.
I went to watch Thomas Skinner’s political crossover event this week for the @NewStatesman