The London Magazine | Contemporary Fiction, Poetry, Essays, Reviews (original) (raw)

The cover of the February / March 1976 issue of The London Magazine, featuring an interview with Geno Pampaloni

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.

Covers of Boyhood by David Keenan and John of John by Douglas Stuart

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.

Winners of The London Magazine Poetry Prize 2026, including Nina Reljić with ‘Helen When Asked’, Henry Woodland with ‘Psalm 137’ and Natalie Perman with ‘Early Gospel’.

Headshot of Herta Müller next to the cover of her memoir, A Village on the Edge of the World.

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.

Photo of the book cover against a background depicting one of the buildings in Portmeirion.

Review | Cloughed Up by O. J. Williams

‘As well as fulfilling a boyhood fantasy of building a hillside village, Portmeirion was Clough’s propaganda piece, the culmination of a career spent campaigning against unchecked “bungaloid growth” by pestering the local authorities.’

O. J. Williams reviews Sarah Baylis’s Portmeirion.

Cover and contents page of the May 1956 edition of The London Magazine.

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.

Some of the works of poet J. H. Prynne including 'The Oval Window' and the two volumes of his collected poems

Headshot of Andrea Luka Zimmerman next to a poster of Wayfaring Stranger.

Drawing of an orchid by Theo Nieuwenhuis, the subject of this essay by Alicia Kopf

Essay | Ophrys, or Of Seduction by Alicia Kopf

‘Modern biology strengthens what Darwin already noted: nature experiments constantly with sex and gender, without being reduced to any single pattern.’

Alicia Kopf on Darwin, sexual selection and orchids.

Sylvia Plath standing by Myron Lotz's car near the Yale Bowl.

Essay | Sylvia, the Ghost Writer by Melanie McGee Bianchi

‘If she’s tampering with me and my middlebrow money-grubbing from some supernatural plane, perhaps it’s just another chore to check off for the overachiever who once journaled, “What horrifies me most is the idea of being useless”.’

Melanie McGee Bianchi on Sylvia Plath’s guest editorship of Mademoiselle and Plath’s cult of perpetuity.

Current Issue

The London Magazine tote bag with the Catalan Issue 2026

New Issue and Tote Bag Bundle

With the new issue and tote bag bundle, save 20% on the cost of the Catalan Issue 2026 and the bespoke TLM tote. The latest issue includes Marina Garcés on Catalan flags and nation states, Oriol Ponsatí-Murlà on the advent of photography and documenting the dead, posthumous short fiction by Mercè Rodoreda and artwork by Mari Chordà and Àngels Ribé. The…

£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.

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.

Subscriptions