Any Human Heart by William Boyd is one of my favourite novels. Reading another ‘whole life novel’, Flesh, gave me an excuse to think about why it meant so much to me. Will was kind enough to share his thoughts on why he thinks whole life novels are so moving.
thecritic.co.uk/the-story-of...
Review for The Critic of two current yet contrasting exhibitions of the work of Alberto Giacometti, one of the greatest sculptors of the twentieth century. They are disquieting exhibitions for disquieting times - thecritic.co.uk/alberto-giac...
The prevalence of hybrid war is increasing. | iai.tv/articles/we-must-fight-t...
Former British Intelligence officer Andy Owen argues the same game-theoretic logic we apply to hot wars needs to be applied in hybrid warfare too.
My review of the excellent Wright of Derby exhibition at the National Gallery: thecritic.co.uk/the-darkness...
For older generations Remembrance Day became synonymous with personal remembering of lost loved ones. As war generations leave us it no longer serves that purpose. By reviving older festivals that remember the dead we can provide new occasions for personal remembrance iai.tv/articles/rem... @iai.tv
“Schopenhauer offers no easy remedies to a disease with no final cure, for the living at least, but Bather Woods successfully shows us if your eyes can adjust to his dark vision of the world, there is much to see” @andyowen.bsky.social
Honoured to interview the great John Gray at this year’s wonderful #HTLGIFestival @iai.tv
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin were caught discussing immortality last week, joining the long of those in search of eternal life. | https://bit.ly/4m7T2WU
But author Andy Owen argues that the quest for eternal life is a dangerous mistake.
#polsky
The two nations have been fighting border skirmishes since the sixties. But a new issue threatens something much worse
✏️ Andy Owen
John Gray prophetically called the end of liberalism. | iai.tv/articles/joh...
John Gray's work helped Andy Gray, a former intelligence officer and author of this article, make sense of his time in Afghanistan. They argue we should give up on looking for utopia, or meaning in life at all.
#philsky
Ahead of my conversation with John Gray at this September’s How the Light Gets In Festival at Kenwood House, I was commissioned by the Institute of Art and Ideas to write this piece on John’s on often prophetic and always challenging and fascinating body of work: iai.tv/articles/joh...
“As this exhibition…shows us, such alliances don’t last”
www.thenewworld.co.uk/andy-owen-lo... @theneweuropean.bsky.social
Seems apt to reshare this from February: “Across the Atlantic another unstable alliance has formed, of a retrograde politician, whose conservative supporters look back towards an unspecified time of greatness, & a forward-looking techno-utopian, united by a desire to sweep away existing norms…”
We should never forget our history of opposition to Nazism, an ideology that ends up with bodies in ovens. An ideology that is anti-British. Our ancestors from throughout the Commonwealth gave their lives so it would remain a stranger to these islands. www.theneweuropean.co.uk/andy-owen-th...
This has been flagged up as "self-harm". There is horrible irony, it shows photographs made by Zoya Shu of Ukrainians tortured by Russians, illustrating a powerful article by journalist Andy Owen. This article does show harm (and indeed a swastika) - etched on human flesh by Russia war criminals.
I wish we cared less about access to #Ukraine's minerals and more about the dignity and human rights of its brave people. Great article here from my university buddy Andy Owen www.theneweuropean.co.uk/andy-owen-pu...
“The continuum of American leadership rather than one specific leader has fulfilled the role of Pericles. Trump’s return is analogous with the plague that killed him. Xi will attempt to manoeuvre himself to the vacant centre of the web” iai.tv/articles/tru...
On what we can learn from the political realism of Machiavelli, Thucydides and Hobbes to answer the question "how do those not at the table understand the new order and protect themselves from the worst impacts of it?" For @iai.tv iai.tv/articles/tru...
Donald Trump is threatening over 2000 years of Western thought. | buff.ly/kVdbUfk
@andyowen.bsky.social argues that we are currently witnessing the end of liberal humanism, driven by Donald Trump’s second inauguration.
#USPolitics #philsky
Reading Moby Dick in the mid-2000s it seemed like an analogy for the War on Terror. Re-reading it in 2025, Ahab morphed from the terrorist leader I first saw him as, though the book's vivid demonstration of the power of demagoguery, to a populist politician. merionwest.com/2025/02/26/w... #MobyDick
On Monday evening at @chathamhouse.bsky.social the impressive Ukrainian human rights lawyer & Nobel Prize winner @avalaina.bsky.social asked what justice for Ukraine should look like. Latest in @theneweuropean.bsky.social: www.theneweuropean.co.uk/andy-owen-wh...
