England at the 2006 World CupEngland’s ‘Golden Generation’ dominated so much of my early(ish) football following years that it’s weirdly hard to pin down exactly what…Mar 1, 2021Mar 1, 2021
The Last of the Griffins; or, how my grandfather had tried to assassinate HitlerI never met my Grandfather, at least not in the sense of an engagement between two equally conscious people. He died of a heart attack…Jan 29, 2021Jan 29, 2021
Arsène Wenger, George Graham and ‘British’ FootballThis essay was prompted by this thread by the Twitter user Post-Liberal Pete (a name that I can only assume is an homage to their…Dec 9, 2020Dec 9, 2020
Grossed out in Macau: Lawrence Osborne’s ‘The Ballad of a Small Player’The novel where everyone involved is a revolting human being is one with a long pedigree but, perhaps because of that, is one that is…Dec 2, 2020Dec 2, 2020
The Original Meaning in HistoryA.N. Whitehouse once famously described the whole of Western philosophy as “a series of footnotes to Plato,” a phrase that has since…Nov 25, 2020Nov 25, 2020
Shows about Shows: References in ‘La La Land’ and ‘The Sopranos’With the exception of the Western, the musical and the mob movie are probably the two oldest and most established genres in American…Nov 18, 2020Nov 18, 2020
How the UK Invented the Nation State but is Bad at Being One; or, a review of David Edgerton’s…In much writing about the history of the United Kingdom’s past century and a half, the question of decline, either as a theme or object of…Nov 11, 2020Nov 11, 2020
Jonathan Hickman wants to Destroy the WorldHow one writer shook up the Marvel continuity with his standout Avengers runOct 28, 2020Oct 28, 2020