The Critic Magazine

29 January, 2026

February’s issue of The Critic leads with two Anglophile Americans’ lament for the Britain they thought they knew and the state of the more troubled, less confident country they now find on their visits. Is it the end of the affair? Also, in The Critic Essay, David Keighley explains why systemically biased BBC news reporting proves impervious to correction, and Maya Forstater explores why children are continuing to be experimented on with puberty blockers, while Alexander Baker argues that the new Mental Health Act’s focus on ever greater autonomy for patients makes us all less safe. With international affairs in turmoil, Sumantra Maitra identifies the nature and limits of the “new imperialism”, Michael Prodger admires the revolutionary painter, David, John Self profiles the novelist, Julian Barnes, Sarah Ditum rocks with The Last Dinner Party and Boris Starling looks back as well as forward to the Winter Olympics.