The Critic Magazine

30 November 2023

The Christmas double issue of The Critic magazine is ready to unwrap, with 112 pages of features, reviews, table talk, analysis, comment and cartoons spanning the cultural, literary, and political landscape at home and abroad. In the issue, Helen Joyce is happy among her heretics, Norman Lebrecht looks forward to a year of Anton Bruckner, Felipe Fernández-Armesto cooks the festive treats that are better on Christmas Eve, wine critic Henry Jeffreys mixes his grapes, and Robert Hutton finds that Ridley Scott’s lavish biopic sells Napoleon short. Also, Johnny Leavesley and the architect Robert Adam uncover the planning rules that have brought Britain to a stop, Laurent Lemasson enters Michel Houellebecq’s world of threesomes and literary philosophy, Hakan Boström reports from Sweden, which is hit by over eighty bomb attacks a year. David Elstein discovers epic mythmaking in recent histories of the Mau Mau rebellion, Michael Prodger finds museums are being emptied by their custodians as well as thieves, and Hannah Betts goes casually glam for the festive season.