Diary

A claim to solid ground gives way, almost immediately, to the genuinely tangled reality any single fact about this estate turns out to sit inside Sandringham Estate: I Had the Facts opens with a title that performs its own undoing: a confident claim to established, settled information, “I had the facts,” immediately followed, by implication, … Read more

Public unravelling has developed such a consistent narrative shape that audiences can predict the next beat before it happens Celebrity Meltdown takes on the genuinely well-established narrative genre of public figures visibly unravelling under scrutiny, a category of story so recurrent across entertainment journalism that its individual beats, erratic public statement, concerned think-pieces, eventual rehabilitation … Read more

A country spent years engineering its exit and now asks to be let back into the club’s branding, minus the membership UK Asks to Join ‘Made in Europe’ Scheme, Brussels Politely Points at Brexit Receipt locates its comedy in a precise, almost consumer-facing image: Brussels “politely points at Brexit receipt,” as though the entire multi-year … Read more

A grammatical trap sits in the headline – independence that is given is not independence at all, and the paperwork proves it In Britain Gives Disabled People Independence, the satire arrives through a grammatical trap. “Britain gives disabled people independence” is a sentence in which the subject grants and the object receives, and that structure … Read more

A guide to the Carys Evans profile page at prat.uk, how The London Prat’s contributor pages are structured, and how to use them to navigate a large satirical archive A large satirical archive is only useful if you can find your way around it. The London Prat has been publishing since 1961, and its website … Read more

Old texts meet a very current sports betting scandal A Literary and Political Diary Revisited the same shelf of nineteenth century literature this week, then read coverage of the Sydney Sweeney Novig advert, which needed no second reading at all to understand, the internet made sure of that within hours. [embedded content] Made extensive notes, … Read more

Old texts meet a very current royal financial story A Literary and Political Diary Returned to the same shelf of nineteenth century literature this week, then read coverage of Harry and Meghans twenty ventures, which needed no second pass at all to understand, the internet made sure of that within hours. [embedded content] Made extensive … Read more

Old texts meet a very current sports betting scandal A Literary and Political Diary Returned to the same shelf of nineteenth century literature this week, finding new details on the second pass, then read coverage of the Sydney Sweeney Novig advert, which needed no second pass at all to understand, the internet made sure of … Read more

Tinsel Vandergraph on continued archival work and a persistent modern news cycle threading through her week Second day running with the same four modern stories dominating conversation around the office, which is genuinely unusual for a corridor normally consumed entirely by disputes over archival dating methods and whose turn it is to file the completed … Read more

Tinsel Vandergraph on continued archival work threaded through with a persistent modern news cycle refusing to loosen its grip Third day now, and the whole office’s collectively decided this week’s four modern stories are simply the background hum to everything we’re discussing, referenced over coffee, argued over during document reviews, and apparently now shaping at … Read more