‘Why would you do that – visit cemeteries?’ is a sentiment often expressed to me, voicing some kind of disgust, as if I did something like, I don’t know, collect vomit.
Konrad Muller interviews Mariana Enríquez.
Archive | The Hitchhiking Game by Milan Kundera
‘It seemed to him that the girl he loved was a creation of his desire, his thoughts, and his faith and that the real girl now standing in front of him was hopelessly alien, hopelessly ambiguous. He hated her.’
From 1978, short fiction by Milan Kundera.
Essay | A Libidinal Legacy by Gabrielle Sicam
‘Once I knew I was writing about Crumb, I knew I wanted to write about perversion.’
Gabrielle Sicam on comics artist Robert Crumb.
Essay | Tap-dancing to the Sounds of a Machine Room by Luke Dunne
‘Cities, as Brecht depicts them, live double lives. Their inhabitants live cheek to jowl and are given to exchanging pleasantries and meaningless conversation ad nauseam.’
Luke Dunne on Bertolt Brecht’s poem ‘Of Poor B.B.’
Essay | Defanging and Radicalising Hamlet by Ira Bhattacharjee
‘Postcolonial reinterpretations do not passively inherit the political meanings embedded in Shakespeare’s text but actively produce, constrain and radicalise them according to the political realities they choose to confront – or avoid.’
Ira Bhattacharjee on Aneil Karia’s and Riz Ahmed’s Hamlet.
Fiction | Mostly Children by Sam Corbett
‘The loneliness I felt, sitting at that table eating my sandwich, was breathtaking. It was a feeling I didn’t know I was capable of summoning.’
New short fiction by Sam Corbett.
Archive | A Critic in Italy: An Interview with Geno Pampaloni
‘The function of the writer is to help and foster knowledge. His kind of message is not an arrow that will necessarily reach the target. Literature is an awareness of the world. It isn’t an instrument with which to change it.’
From 1976, an interview with Geno Pampaloni.
Review | An Open Wound by Laura Baliman
‘Each author simply holds a looking glass towards the fabric of manhood, and Stuart’s glass seems to catch the light a little more.’
Laura Baliman reviews Boyhood by David Keenan and John of John by Douglas Stuart.
Nina Reljić wins The London Magazine Poetry Prize 2026
The judges of The London Magazine Poetry Prize 2026 award first place to Nina Reljić for her poem ‘Helen When Asked’, with second and third place awarded to Henry Woodland and Natalie Perman.
Review | A Village as Small as a Thimble by Gabrielle McClellan
‘If Müller’s oeuvre captures the absurdities of this dogmatic regime, then Heimatliteratur is the paradox of village and fatherland, the intractability of home and violence.’
Gabrielle McClellan reviews Herta Müller’s The Village on the Edge of the World.
Poetry | Helen When Asked by Nina Reljić
‘My face was not the most beautiful / but any person was entitled to think it was / and what terrifying pleasure in that.’
Nina Reljić’s winning poem in this year’s Poetry Prize.
Review | A Very British Revolt by John Merrick
‘Britain, whoever is in power, is a small-c conservative place.’
John Merrick on the 1926 General Strike.
Essay | A 2026 Survey of Poets
Sixty-four years on from the original survey, The London Magazine speaks to fifteen poets, including Jorie Graham, Don Paterson, A. E. Stallings and more, about the state of contemporary poetry.
New Issue and Tote Bag Bundle
With the new issue and tote bag bundle, save 20% on the cost of the June / July 2026 issue and the bespoke TLM tote. The latest issue includes the winning poems from this year’s Poetry Prize, as well as new work by Nick Laird and Lawrence Osborne, and The London Magazine 2026 Survey of Poets, featuring responses from Don Paterson,…
£20.00
Podcast
On The London Magazine podcast, we speak to brilliant writers, poets and artists about their craft, inspiration and career so far. New episodes every month.
Podcast | Ann Goldstein
Ann Goldstein discusses the oxymoron of the ‘celebrated translator’, her early encounters with Italian through Dante and the story of how she became Ferrante’s translator. Goldstein reflects on Ferrante’s unique syntax and style, as well as the broader challenges of Italian–English translation.
Podcast | Gurnaik Johal
‘This is where I say to any budding writers out there: write historical fiction!’
Gurnaik Johal on The London Magazine Podcast.
Podcast | Leo Robson
‘One of the things that the novel is about is different forms of chronology that we mark things by.’
Leo Robson on The London Magazine Podcast.
Archive
The London Magazine has a publication history spanning almost three hundred years, and has featured work by some of the most prominent names in literature, from John Keats to Hilary Mantel. In this curated selection, we share our favourite pieces from the TLM archive.
Archive | The Hitchhiking Game by Milan Kundera
‘It seemed to him that the girl he loved was a creation of his desire, his thoughts, and his faith and that the real girl now standing in front of him was hopelessly alien, hopelessly ambiguous. He hated her.’
From 1978, short fiction by Milan Kundera.
Archive | A Critic in Italy: An Interview with Geno Pampaloni
‘The function of the writer is to help and foster knowledge. His kind of message is not an arrow that will necessarily reach the target. Literature is an awareness of the world. It isn’t an instrument with which to change it.’
From 1976, an interview with Geno Pampaloni.
Archive | At Noon by Elizabeth Jennings
‘Lying upon my bed I see / Full noon at ease. Each way I look / A world established without me / Proclaims itself. I take a book / And flutter through the pages where / Sun leaps through shadows.’
From 1956, poetry by Elizabeth Jennings.
