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Philip Hensher

Philip Hensher

The Guardian

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Books / Garbriel García Márquez has been ill-served by his sons

I blame Kafka. When he died in 1924, the vast majority of his imaginative work remained unpublished, including three novels and a substantial number...

21.03.2024 6

The Spectator

Philip Hensher

Books / It feels somehow improper to witness an author groping for the right words

Philip Hensher has narrated this article for you to listen to. The early stages of a literary work are often of immense interest. It is perhaps a...

26.02.2024 2

The Spectator

Philip Hensher

Park life / The beauty – and tragedy – of our nesting swans 

There won’t be any cygnets this year. The cob was on the lake this morning on his own, occasionally slapping the water, floating without any evident...

11.01.2024 3

The Spectator

Philip Hensher

Books / The British Empire’s latest crime – to have ended the Enlightenment

What is the Enlightenment, and when did it come to an end? Neither are easy questions to answer. The Enlightenment, as a historical phenomenon or a...

30.11.2023 4

The Spectator

Philip Hensher

Park life / The shame of Ian, the lockdown pup

The park we go to every day is Victorian – large, full of mock landscapes and extravagantly diverse settings, lakes, woodlands, formal gardens and...

23.11.2023 6

The Spectator

Philip Hensher

The brilliance of A.S. Byatt lives on in her writing

Dame Antonia Byatt, the novelist A.S. Byatt, has died after a long illness. With her goes part of the conscience of English fiction; its heart, its...

18.11.2023 6

The Spectator

Philip Hensher

Books / How has the Conservative party’s ‘Dr No’ escaped everyone’s notice for so long?

The reason conspiracy theories are so resilient, reproducing themselves from one generation to another, is that they are unfalsifiable. Evidence...

16.11.2023 8

The Spectator

Philip Hensher

Books / Why did Jon Fosse win the Nobel Prize for literature? It’s baffling.

The Nobel Prize for Literature this year was awarded to the Norwegian novelist and playwright Jon Fosse (pictured). He has long been admired by anyone...

04.11.2023 20

The Spectator

Philip Hensher

Notes on... / How Vegemite took over the world

Vegemite is 100 years old. The first yeast paste, Marmite, was introduced in the UK in 1902, named after the French cooking pot; New Zealand Marmite,...

02.11.2023 9

The Spectator

Philip Hensher

Books / The astonishing truth about 007

The novel as a form is a fundamentally capitalist enterprise. It was invented at the same time as capitalism – Robinson Crusoe tots up his situation...

28.09.2023 3

The Spectator

Philip Hensher

Click bait: confessions of a Lego addict

The empire of Lego has many dominions and protectorates, with every year, it seems, new territories to conquer. There are theme parks; there are films...

07.09.2023 10

The Spectator

Philip Hensher

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