Tim Smith-LaingMasterpieces: Susanna Bathing by Albrecht AltdorferMasterpieces is an occasional series of short essays on works of art, inspired by the late Tom Lubbock’s ‘Great Works’. Follow me here or…5 min read·May 28, 2020----
Tim Smith-LaingMasterpieces: Martino Martini by Michaelina WautierMasterpieces is a series of short essays on works of art. Inspired by the late Tom Lubbock’s ‘Great Works’, a fresh piece will be put up…4 min read·May 15, 2020----
Tim Smith-LaingReview: John Lanchester, The Wall‘None of us can talk to our parents’, says Kavanagh, the narrator of John Lanchester’s The Wall. He is speaking from an undefined…3 min read·Oct 20, 2019----
Tim Smith-LaingReview: Geoff Dyer, ‘Broadsword Calling Danny Boy’: On Where Eagles DareI finished ‘Broadsword Calling Danny Boy’, fittingly enough, in the queue for a film. A very different film to Where Eagles Dare, though…4 min read·Oct 16, 2019----
Tim Smith-LaingReview: Charlotte Higgins, Red Thread: On Mazes and LabyrinthsThe word ‘clue’ is a fragment of myth living on undercover in everyday English. It is Middle English, clew, originally, for a ball of…4 min read·Oct 14, 2019----
Tim Smith-LaingReview: A.M. Homes, Days of AweThe first few tales in Days of Awe could be read as a parodic comment on the modern American short story. If what you want from your…4 min read·Oct 12, 2019----
Tim Smith-LaingGeorge BraqueHow often do you look at an object while staying stock still? Not often, if ever. Even if you stay in one place, your eyes do not: you…3 min read·Oct 11, 2019----
Tim Smith-LaingReview: Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily LifeLike the preceding four volumes of his Incerto project, Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s Skin in the Game is generically uncategorisable. In common…5 min read·Oct 10, 2019----
Tim Smith-LaingReview: Steven Pinker Enlightenment NowBy the end of the first 50 pages of his new book, Steven Pinker has divided the world into two groups, the reasonable and the unreasonable…5 min read·Oct 8, 2019----
Tim Smith-LaingReview: Edward O. Wilson The Origins of CreativityA version of this review originally appeared in The Telegraph in October 2017.4 min read·Oct 5, 2019----