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Articles by Sinclair McKay
Good moaning: the subversive sitcoms of the 1980s revisited
Still Laughing: How the Sitcom Kept Britain Smiling in the ’80s The History Press, pp.308, 25 The foundations of all British situation comedy were laid by Charles Dickens. If you were to remove that tiresome fun-sponge Little Nell and her wholly meaningless death from The Old Curiosity Shop, for instance, you would have before you, in more pleasing proportions, a rich array of recurring comic characters in a variety of scenarios.
Eine Nation hadert mit sich selbst : „Für uns Briten scheint die Welt ein einsamer Ort zu sein“
zum Hauptinhalt © AFP/OLI SCARFF Politisches Chaos und Brexit-Katerstimmung: Großbritannien ist gerade ein deprimiertes Land, schreibt Autor Sinclair McKay und berichtet, wie es sich trotz der WM-Erfolge anfühlt, Brite zu sein. Ein Gastbeitrag von Sinclair McKay Stand: heute, 13:11 Uhr Jetzt neu: Tagesspiegel bei Google bevorzugen Es gibt zwei unveränderliche Elemente des britischen Charakters. Das eine ist die feste Überzeugung, dass sich die Nation im endgültigen Niedergang befindet.
Were the lies we told to combat communism so shameful?
Fakers: A Top-Secret Tale of Phantoms and Forgeries on the Disinformation Front Line OUP, pp.368, 25 This, we might imagine, is the Age of the Fake. AI videos; TikTok fascists; the Joycean mind-fragments of a US president for whom truth itself is an ever shifting quantum concept. Surely no other generation has had to navigate such a disorientating landscape of deceit. Or perhaps they have.
SAINT PETERSBURG
The horrors of war, skillfully told on an epic scale. British literary critic McKay, author of The Hidden History of Code-Breaking (2023), does not break new ground in his account of an event that is hugely significant in Russian history: the 900-day Siege of Leningrad. The author hurries over pre-Soviet history and emphasizes Stalin in what followed.
Sinclair McKay on the Fever Dreams of Saint Petersburg
‘There are, Nastenka, though you may not know it, strange nooks in Petersburg,’ declares the narrator of White Nights by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (a recent unexpected hit on TikTok and in bookshops everywhere). ‘In these corners, dear Nastenka, quite a different life is lived, quite unlike the life that is surging round us, but such as perhaps exists in some unknown realm….’ These ‘nooks’ and ‘corners’ are inhabited by the dreamers of Saint Petersburg.
The horror and the seeds of hope at Leningrad
The idea was revolutionary — yet there was something ancient at its heart. The scientist Nikolai Vavilov, arriving in Petrograd in 1921 to take the helm of the Bureau of Applied Botany and Plant Breeding, was on a sacred mission: to make, in his words, “a treasury of all known crops and plants.” The world’s first seed bank would shape the future of agriculture — possibly even eliminate failed harvests and hunger.
Spending Halloween at Whitby Goth Weekend
Every April and every Halloween weekend, Whitby in Yorkshire is chock-full of goths. As I seem to be The Spectator’s adopted goth, I was asked if I might like to write about Whitby Goth Weekend (WGW). Goth is a fashion that emphasizes darkness and death: Edgar Allan Poe and Alice Cooper are the best examples. But the only thing to fear from WGW is the horrific train journey. It took six hours to go from King’s Cross to Whitby.
Seeds of hope in the siege of Leningrad
The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad: A True Story of Science and Sacrifice in a City Under Siege Sceptre, pp.384, 25 The idea was revolutionary – yet there was something ancient at its heart. The scientist Nikolai Vavilov, arriving in Petrograd in 1921 to take the helm of the Bureau of Applied Botany and Plant Breeding, was on a sacred mission: to make, in his words, ‘a treasury of all known crops and plants’.
They once met Winston. By Geoffrey Wheatcroft - reviews two of the latest books on Churchill
Meeting Churchill: A Life in 90 Encounters By Sinclair McKay. Viking £16.99 Mirrors of Greatness: Churchill and the Leaders Who Shaped Him By David Reynolds. Collins £25 We had better start bracing ourselves: November sees Winston Churchill’s sesquicentenary. He was born on 30th November 1874, and his centenary in 1974 was somewhat muted, not surprisingly as it was less than ten years since his long-drawn-out death and unforgettable funeral in January 1965.
Churchill the progressive pioneer?
Please be advised that the following article contains outdated racial representations and views some readers may find distressing. Only joking! Yet that always seems to be the unspoken line running through modern academia’s head whenever the subject of Winston Churchill is raised. This year sees the 150th anniversary of Churchill’s birth; it will also see cohorts of academics jostling to tell us just how horrifically racist, imperialist, sexist and probably transphobic he was.
What progressives get wrong about Winston Churchill
Please be advised that the following article contains outdated racial representations and views some readers may find distressing. Only joking! Yet that always seems to be the unspoken line running through modern academia’s head whenever the subject of Winston Churchill is raised. This year sees the 150th anniversary of Churchill’s birth; it will also see cohorts of academics jostling to tell us just how horrifically racist, imperialist, sexist and probably transphobic he was.
The World at War is the greatest documentary series ever made
To present a TV history documentary these days, one must first have access to the full Angels and Bermans dressing-up box – everything from britches to bonnets. The past must be experienced as pantalooned immersion: throw in some CGI cavalry charges or naval battles, plus artfully dressed period locations, back-alley washing-lines fluttering with greying rags, and you are just about ready to go. This is not necessarily to complain.
The 16th-century codebreaker who wrote secret messages on boiled eggs
Excerpted from The Hidden History of Code Breaking: The Secret World of Cyphers, Uncrackable Codes, and Elusive Encryptions by Sinclair McKay. Published by Pegasus Books, August 2023. A glimmering city of white and ochre, facing a bay of intense blue and in the shadow of the mighty Vesuvius, there was a point when Naples was one of the intellectual and artistic crossroads of the world. Throughout the Renaissance it was home to artists, philosophers, and the earliest scientists.
The American Indian Code Talkers Who Helped Revolutionize Cryptography and Win WWII
Sometimes secret codes can be the poignant echoes of languages that have been suppressed by conquering powers. There are words and phrases and cadences that have been smothered by oppressors and, as such, can be used by their original speakers in the spirit of defiance.
Library Journal
Journalist, critic, and popular historian McKay ( Secret Lives of Codebreakers) traces the increasingly sophisticated use and decryption of coded texts to wage and win wars, to woo lovers, and to conceal esoteric or scientific knowledge throughout the centuries. Each of the book’s 50 entries paints a picture of how a particular cypher was invented, used, or broken and the personalities behind these codes.
Table of Contents - October 20, 2022
The Two Elizabeths The queen presided over the death of a British world and yet was enormously successful in keeping alive the monarchy that symbolized it. Silences and Scars Two new books on Berlin track the city through decades of growth, economic desperation, artistic innovation, Nazi terror, political division, and reunification.
The real Dick Whittington and the folklore legend
In that dark world the air pulsed with the melancholy clangour of bells. If, as legend has it, the chimes of St Mary-le-Bow told Dick Whittington to turn again, then what were they saying to all the other medieval Londoners, dwelling in houses so crowded on fouled streets that the sun could not break through? In the shadow of implacable plague, even London’s super rich were piercingly aware of life’s fragility. Their homes were scented with lily, lavender and the smoke of applewood. They had to be.
Sex and politics in the precincts of St Paul’s Cathedral
In the tight dark maze of alleys that wind between the Thames and St Paul’s the pleasures of the living are intertwined with those of the distant dead. Try it for yourself on a late Saturday afternoon.
news, politics, life & arts
The silenced city has been, for some, uncanny. Deserted evening streets, darkened pubs, shut shops and the absence of fellow footsteps might suggest that some essential spirit has fled. Yet this is exactly the wrong way to look at it, says the novelist, historian and biographer Peter Ackroyd. For him, both lockdown and winter provide opportunities to see London in a different light. ‘The silence and the empty streets are very appealing,’ he says.
Great Reads for March 2020
Ahoy! Hello from quarantine. It's been a long few days with the kids in the house and I hope you and yours are safe and well. I have a few things to share today. First, if you're technical at all I'd like you to check out what my friend Chris Dancy built. It's an AirTable tool that lets you create an emergency network in your neighborhood. AirTable is giving out three months of free pro service to people who want to set one up in their neighborhoods.
Behind the veil of secrecy: GCHQ emerges from the shadows
Books Behind the Enigma: The Authorized History of GCHQ, Britain’s Secret Cyber-Intelligence Agency by John Ferris reviewed With almost 159 quintillion settings, the Enigma machine was considered unbreakable — though not by Bletchley Park (Alamy) Is it ever possible to truly see inside the heart of another? To divine hidden intentions and the darkest of thoughts?
75 Years After the Dresden Bombings
Sinclair McKay is the bestselling author of The Secret Lives of Codebreakers and The Secret Listeners for Aurum, as well as several other books. Sinclair is a literary critic for the Telegraphand The Spectatorand for three years was a judge of the Encore Prize, awarded annually for best second novel. He lives in the shadow of Canary Wharf in east London. His new book, The Fire and The Darkness: The Bombing of Dresden, 1945, was published by St. Martin’s Press on February 4, 2020.
Secret Agent Brainteasers
CHAPTER 1 THE TAP ON THE SHOULDER Perhaps I should begin with a confession. Back in my university days, there were rumours that a certain academic – a convivial figure who was popular with the students – was also a spy. He was said to work for one of the services; it was broadly assumed to be MI6. Obviously, if he were to turn up in the same pub as some of his students in the evening, then none of this was ever mentioned.
The world might never have seen Nazi Adolf Eichmann face justice if not for the personal zeal of a TV producer
Perhaps television viewers, gathered around in horrified fascination all across the world, had been expecting the shrieks and gesticulations of a fascist ideologue; or even another performance: desperate, tearful denials. What they saw instead was, in some senses, one of the 20th century’s defining portraits of evil, captured for the first time on the 20th century’s newest medium.
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