December 2026 issue
Bloody women: Cynthia Miller-Idriss on how online misogyny draws men to the populist right and extremism. Katharine Quarmby on adoption, Ben Ansell on Brexit, Ioan Marc Jones on quiet. Plus: John Berger, Richard Dawkins, de Kooning and Suchet
Past issues
Politics
How the populist right profits from online misogyny
The global backlash against women demands urgent action
Cynthia Miller-Idriss
Editor’s Picks
The case against adoption
Katharine Quarmby
My quest for peace and quiet
Ioan Marc Jones
AI’s railroad to corruption
Ethan Zuckerman
Seema Chishti’s diary: Silhouettes and belonging
Image courtesy of Penguin Random House
Hermione Lee: Biography is a dying art
Samuel Stephen
Obituary: Eva Marie Saint
Peter Hoskin
Regulars
Editorial: Rays of hope
Letters: December 2026
Stephen Collins’s cartoon: The political Repair Shop
Stephen Collins
Claude: The AI chatbot reveals the book every child should read, its view on censorship and whether it's conscious
Argument
© Alamy
Welcome back, 2016
Ben Ansell
Photo by Alamy / Adam Burton
Coming back to autumn
Sasha Mudd
AI’s railroad to corruption
Ethan Zuckerman
Image: Shutterstock / Wikimedia Commons
Embedded with Number 11: First gherkins, then jam
Henry Morris
Seema Chishti’s diary: Silhouettes and belonging
Features
How the populist right profits from online misogyny
Cynthia Miller-Idriss
The case against adoption
Katharine Quarmby
The case for a non-political British civil service
Vernon Bogdanor
Photography by Paul Black
Arch nemesis
Jo Glanville
My quest for peace and quiet
Ioan Marc Jones
People
Dawkins’s leap of faith
Peter Hoskin
Image courtesy of Penguin Random House
Hermione Lee: Biography is a dying art
Samuel Stephen
Image courtesy of Penguin Random House
Meet the ‘Mozart of maths’
Graeme Green
Altheia Jones-LeCointe (left) with former co-defendant Barbara Beese (right) at a ceremony to commemorate the 1971 Mangrove Nine trial. Image: Mark Barron
The woman behind the British Black Panthers
Rebecca Swirsky
The Culture
The woodcut frontispiece, likely by Ambrosius Holbein, from Thomas More’s original print run of “Utopia” © Granger / Bridgeman Images
Where on Earth is Utopia now?
Rhodri Lewis
Can feminism meet the challenges of 2026?
Alona Ferber
An anatomy of America’s gun culture
James Bloodworth
Illustration by Jessica Rose Bird
The many revolutions of John Berger
Christopher Bray
Books in brief: What to read this November
Willem de Kooning: the restless artist
Fiammetta Rocco
Girls, Glee and the end of days
Imogen West-Knights
Introducing my undesirable friends
Sukhdev Sandhu
Playing at religion
Kate Maltby
Classical notes: Word, words, words
Ian Bostridge
Lives
Illustration by Clara Nicoll
Clerical life: Celebrating the day of the dead
Alice Goodman
Illustration by Clara Nicholl
Second life: I buy back my own books from second-hand shops
Vitali Vitaliev
Illustration by Clara Nicoll
Young life: Packing up my twenties flat-share experience
Alice Garnett
Illustration by Clara Nicoll
Mindful life: Don’t forget to invite your mates to your cosy night in
Sarah Collins
Illustration of Tilly Lawless by Clara Nicoll
Sex life: I know the city as only a sex worker can
Tilly Lawless
Rural life: In Autumn I am struck with hiraeth
Kiran Sidhu
Illustration by Clara Nicoll
Long life: I need to stop nodding off in front of the telly
Sheila Hancock
Obituary: Eva Marie Saint
Peter Hoskin
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