Half a profile, half an essay on the exceptional Hannah Starkey and her portraits of women who worked to build peace in the North of Ireland for the British Journal of Photography.
An essay on a category of person I think of as “life’s losers”. Those who are incredibly status obsessed at the cost of basically everything else for Slate.
An essay on the dubious nature of narratives that universalise the female experience, in a review of The Crane Wife, for The New Republic.
An essay on wanting narratives of female behaviour which afford us more complexity, and the currency female abjection is awarded in a patriarchal society (I see this as a companion piece to my abortion essay) for Slate.
An essay on one of my key enemies, another Belfast novelist named Michael Magee, and the misogyny still levelled at young female novelists for The Guardian.
An essay on the contradictory reaction to the Queen’s death, from “progressive” brands for New York Magazine.
An essay on a decade of online dating and ghosting and conflict aversion for New York Magazine.
A sort of profile of the iconic FaveTikToks420 Instagram account for The New York Times.
An essay on how dating apps have made everyone act loopy for The Guardian.
An essay on Gilles Peress’ extraordinary documentation of The Troubles for Elephant Magazine.
An essay on mainstream influencers as the vanguard of cultural banality, how very dubious social justice posturing is used to sell the banality, the regular social media smear campaigns etc etc etc for The Guardian.
An essay on what facial recognition means for our privacy in the context of private companies for The Baffler.
An essay for the “My fantasy home” series: The hotel from Lost in Translation, for The Financial Times.
An essay on the flattening online trend for saying “this thing is just like that thing which is just like this other thing” on and on until nothing seems serious (also known as: stop calling America a failed state) for The Guardian.
An essay on where the photos used in facial recognition software actually come from (i.e. all over the internet) for The London Review of Books (online).
An essay on the abortion access issues currently forcing people to travel for basic healthcare in the North of Ireland and Scotland for The Guardian.
An essay on an exhibition interrogating how the changing role of the bedroom has impacted on making art for The Financial Times.
An essay on the life lessons to be learned in a cemetery for The Guardian.
An essay on why I think privacy is a good thing because it lets us get away with doing bad things sometimes for Rolling Stone.
An essay on the value of substance in a world where everything feels transient, in a piece unpacking the furor around Joan Didion’s estate sale for The Guardian.
An essay on the psychedelic brilliance of the Dreamachine for ArtReview.
A feature on the trend for podcasts based on a friendship, which speak to millennial alienation for The Financial Times.
An essay on the ‘lolll rich people’ shows and why Succession is the best of these, and my boyfriend: Logan Roy for The Guardian.
An essay on receipts culture and how the aura of scandal rarely leads to anything more for Gawker (RIP).
An essay on trying to keep things in perspective for Novara Media.
An essay on the way laughter operates on the internet (and one of my favourite emojis:🤣) for Art Review.
An essay on a certain kind of front-facing comedy video (that I call the ‘funny voice videos’) and British people’s perception of satire for The London Review of Books (online).
An essay on Cat Person and the limits of power dynamic analysis for The NewStatesman.
An essay on the moral panic over increased ‘workplace surveillance’ during the pandemic, and the long history of monitoring employees for The Guardian.
The trend for art exhibitions celebrating the hedonism of rave culture, while raving irl becomes more corporate and sanitised for The TLS.
How a change in working habits during the pandemic could fix the ‘London bubble’ and make it a more livable city for The Guardian.
An essay on the weirdness of Elon Musk launching a rocket in the middle of a pandemic for The Baffler.