Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • The Critic Magazine

    Sincerely ducking the hard questions

    May 27, 2021 4 minutes
    Nick Cohen

    G.K. CHESTERTON DEFINED THE “good bad book” in 1905 as cracking stories with no pretensions that survive long after readers have forgotten the serious literary fiction of the day. The Sherlock Holmes stories were an example George Orwell cited when he ran with Chesterton’s idea in the 1940s, and you might quote them today.

    In our vicious and gullible times, we have “false true books”: propaganda works that are deceitful to the point of worthlessness, but reflect a truth about the world because millions believe their ideas and act on them. What Chesterton said of fiction applies to political writing: “The more dishonest a book is as a book the more

    You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

    More from The Critic Magazine

    The Critic Magazine4 min read
    The Final Lap
    THE SAN MARINO GRAND PRIX, 1994. THIRTY years ago this May Day. AYRTON SENNA sits on the start line and removes his helmet, which he never usually does. “The helmet hides feelings which cannot be understood,” he once said. Today, he doesn’t bother to
    The Critic Magazine4 min read
    Romeo Coates “Between You And Me …”
    GIVING US HIS MODERN-DAY Falstaff (suddenly “Shakespeare’s ultimate gangster”, apparently), McKellen unfashionably relies on a fat suit for the role. Though such an approach is now often frowned upon by the obese/obese-conscious, old Gandalf deems hi
    The Critic Magazine6 min read
    Did An Army Of Spies End The Troubles?
    THE TWO MOST BORING WORDS IN THE ENGlish language? For a time, the answer from almost every news editor in London was “Northern Ireland”. Then came the Belfast Agreement, signed 26 years ago on Good Friday, 1998. Three decades of deadlock had come to

    Related Books & Audiobooks