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.

In the double summer issue of The Critic, the magazine of ideas for open-minded readers, Charles Wide and Graham Stewart find a Church of England leadership more interested in searching for imaginary bigots in its pews than addressing the crisis in its parishes; Christopher Montgomery argues that it was not Boris Johnson’s cunning plan, but Theresa May’s mulish obstinacy that gave him the keys to Downing Street and Richard Negus discovers the fascist sympathies of Britain’s early environmentalists. Paul Raffaele travels into the mountains of Pakistan in search of the real Kafiristan of Kipling’s The Man Who Would Be King, Lisa Hilton compares the social codes of modern summer events with those of the traditional English Season, Richard Bratby offers tips on how to drive a steam train, Martin Kemp marvels at Raphael’s divine dazzle and Sarah Ditum wonders if Britney will ever be truly free. Together with the full spectrum of reviews and analysis of modern life and culture across 112 pages, The Critic makes for perfect summer reading.