Author

Josh Mcloughlin

Josh Mcloughlin is a writer from Merseyside. He is the editor-in-chief of New Critique, a Wolfson Scholar in the Humanities at University College London, and he was shortlisted for the Jane Martin Poetry Prize (2019) and the International Awards for Art Criticism (2020). He writes for The Times, The London Magazine, The Spectator, The Fence, and others.

Articles by Josh Mcloughlin

A Victorian print of the burning of the Library of Alexandria.
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The curious history of imaginary libraries

Just as potent as the libraries that once existed are the libraries that never did. The imaginary library has never ceased to enthral poets, prelates, politicians and pranksters...

Josh McloughlinOctober 24, 2024
'The Pandemonium' by John Martin, 1854.
essays

Poetry, prose and the battle for Paradise Lost

When first published, John Milton's Paradise Lost ignited criticism and controversy for its lack of rhyming poetry and it became part of a battle for the soul of English literature..

Josh McloughlinJuly 30, 2024
Pieter Bruegels' 'Children's Games'.
essays

Sport is more than just a game

Sport clearly reflects the grubby, greedy world that feeds on it, but it also stands apart to some degree, preserving a spectacle of effort and emotion, mind and body, flesh and fe..

Josh McloughlinJuly 3, 2024
Geometric shaped interior in the Jameh Mosque in Isfahan.
portraits

Mullā Ṣadrā, Islam’s greatest modern philosopher

Despite being widely considered the greatest philosopher in modern Islamic thought, the Persian ‘theosopher’ Mullā Ṣadrā (1571-1635), who flourished under the Safavid dynasty, rema..

Josh McloughlinMay 31, 2024
A system of human knowledge from the ‘Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire Raisonné des Sciences, des Arts et des Métiers’ edited by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert.
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The forgotten art of memory

For centuries, mnemonics was valued by societies and cultures across the world. We would be wise to rediscover it. ..

Josh McloughlinApril 3, 2024
William Shakespeare collage.
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Fake Shakespeare

This year marks the 400th anniversary of the publication of one of the most important books in English literature: William Shakespeare's First Folio. Yet the history of the Folio i..

Josh McloughlinNovember 10, 2023
Editions of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
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An ode to the ODNB

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography is one of Britain’s cultural treasures...

Josh McloughlinAugust 1, 2023
Supporters wave England flags during the Women's Euro final 2022 in Trafalgar Square.
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Total football — from catenaccio to gegenpressing it’s about openness to ideas

Footballing philosophies are central to the national mythologies of the cultures that produce them...

Josh McloughlinAugust 3, 2022
A railway station restaurant in Milan, 1931. Credit: MARKA / Alamy Stock Photo.
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Against pasta: remembering The Manifesto of Futurist Cooking

Although tainted by the history of Fascism, the Manifesto and La cucina futurista deserve to be remembered as a brave, bizarre and fascinating attempt to aestheticise gastronomy – ..

Josh McloughlinMay 13, 2022
Valeriy Lobanovskyi next to the pitch during the 1986 European Cup final between Athletico Madrid and Dynamo Kyiv in Lyon, 1986. Credit: Paul Popper via Getty Images
portraits

Valeriy Lobanovskyi: The greatest football coach you’ve never heard of

A mathematician, a footballer, and very nearly a plumber, Valeriy Lobanovskyi was a leading light of the Soviet era and combined his intellectual interests with the love of the gam..

Josh McloughlinNovember 9, 2021
Gareth Southgate after missing his penalty during the European Championship Finals semi final between England and Germany at Wembley, on June 26, 1996. Germany won the match on penalties.
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Football’s rhetoric of suffering

Today’s players and managers frame football as a process of pious struggle, vacillating between anguish and redemption. In the wake of Covid-19, can football maintain its self-pity..

Josh McloughlinAugust 20, 2021
Billboard of Netflix show Jane the Virgin.
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Jane the Virgin: Metafictional telenovela par excellence

Netflix show Jane the Virgin's deep engagement with Latin American and Spanish literature and the telenovela form makes it one of the most intellectually interesting TV series in r..

Josh McloughlinJuly 15, 2021