The Critic

The Critic is Britain’s new monthly magazine for politics, ideas, art, literature and much more. Co-edited by Michael Mosbacher and Christopher Montgomery, The Critic exists to push back against a self-regarding and dangerous consensus that finds critical voices troubling, triggering, insensitive and disrespectful. The point is not provocation or trolling. The point of honest criticism is to better approach truth, not deny its possibility.

Ossified thought and a lack of intellectual rigour are depressing features of all sides of today’s political and cultural debate. Our writers will subscribe to no editorial line nor serve the interests of any party, faction or cause. We ask them to write because we expect them to be honest, and lucidly so. Look to our contributors and fault us if they are not. 

Contributors to the magazine include Jonathan Meades, Douglas Murray, Nick Cohen, Joshua Rozenberg, Anne McElvoy, Norman Lebrecht, Daniel Johnson, Lisa Hilton, Hannah Betts and Artists in Residence Adam Dant and Miriam Elia.

The Christmas double issue of The Critic is out now, filled with stimulating reading for the festive season, including a bumper section of book reviews and a round-up of the best non-fiction of 2024. John Self acclaims the late novelist Paul Bailey, DJ Taylor asks how the art of literary biography will cope with the unadventurous lives of most modern writers, and Jaspreet Singh Boparai revisits Shakespeare’s vision of Christmas.

Also, David Scullion goes behind the scenes in Robert Jenrick’s failed Conservative leadership campaign, whilst Dan Hitchens paints a portrait of life among Conservative intellectuals during the 1970s. Norman Lebrecht asks why no great symphonies are written anymore, David Elstein uncovers some alarming statistics in the BBC’s funding, Lisa Hilton is underwhelmed by Quod, Alexander Chula searches for the remains of an Anglican warrior bishop who took on African slave traders, Boris Starling remembers the West Indies cricketer, Malcolm Marshall, Toby Young worries about QPR’s form and Henry Jefferies marks the passing of London’s bike couriers.