Making Hackwork

History In The Making

Stephen Davies | Work In Progress | 8th December

The study of history is meant to help us understand our present and our future. But a conception of history dominated by wars and revolutions will not get us very far. It is new ideas and new technologies that do most to shape the world over time. Better to understand how Newton's Principia changed science, and how the Model-T changed America, than how 1066 changed Britain (3,100 words)

The Brilliant Hackwork Of P.G. Wodehouse

Dan Brooks | Gawker | 7th December 2022

P.G. Wodehouse found a recipe for writing comic novels, and very wisely stuck to it. In innumerable novels and short stories Bertie Wooster gets into some scrape after shunning Jeeves's advice, and Jeeves, after a huff, engineers a happy ending. The formulaic quality of the stories is part of their charm. It allows for a seemingly effortless style of writing, and the levity transmits itself to the reader (1,500 words)