Top Of The Week: Cave, Lear, Highsmith, Flight, Xi

14 Jun 2025 • 3 min read

Inside Britain’s Underworld

David Rose | UnHerd | 20th May 2025 | U

For thirty years, hobbyist British cavers have been painstakingly exploring previously unknown territory "under a sheep-grazed meadow in Gloucestershire’s Forest of Dean". Down a vertical shaft that took months of digging to clear lies a cave system that extends for at least 20km. Among the chambers discovered is "the White Forest", which contains crystalline stalactites that look like Venetian glass (1,900 words)

Tyranny As Tragedy

Nan Z. Da | Literary Hub | 10th June 2025 | U

King Lear and 20C totalitarianism have much in common. “Look in on almost any moment in Lear and you cannot see how bad the situation is. In a Learian world, what people are capable of in the last instance can be glimpsed in the first instance, but you’d be hard pressed to recognise the first instance. Shakespeare made Lear someone who, like all fundamentally good people, never sees it coming” (3,100 words)

The Talented Ms. Highsmith

Elena Gosalvez Blanco | Yale Review | 9th June 2025 | U

The subheading of this piece alone thrills and intrigues: "I worked for the novelist in her final months. I thought she wanted to kill me." Highsmith was in her 70s, sick with lung cancer, and did not like people. This writer became her live-in assistant at her Brutalist house in Switzerland. Duties included grocery shopping, cat feeding, using as little electricity as possible, and being screamed at about Ernest Hemingway (6,400 words)

Falsehoods About Aviation

Ben Burwell | Angle Of Attack | 2nd June 2025 | U

Organising aviation data is a herculean task, as programmers cannot assume that any of the following are constants — flights take off and land at airports; flights only depart from a gate; flights only leave their gate once; no two flights use the same flight number at the same time; each runway is only used by one airport; there is one agreed-upon definition of altitude; airports don’t move (1,000 words)

What Xi Jinping Learned From His Father

Joseph Torigian | China Books Review | 12th June 2025 | U

When Xi Jinping became leader of the CCP in 2012, moderates in the party hoped that he would be a reformist voice like his father before him. Xi Zhongxun was purged from the party several times because of his views. It soon emerged that his son had learned a different lesson: “My father entrusted me with two things: don’t persecute people and tell the truth. The first is possible, while the second is not” (2,800 words)

Puzzle: Nomido is the Browser's daily word game. Play today's before it's gone!

Podcast: Ageing, Onions, And Matters Of The Heart | Bedside Manners. Actor Miriam Margolyes talks about ageing — with all her trademark candour — in a podcast about people overcoming grave health challenges (50m 57s)

Video: Honey Bees In Ultra Slow Motion | YouTube | Michigan Shooter | 4m 03s

Extraordinary slow motion footage of honey bees, taken at 150,000 frames per second. Every movement of the wings is visible, making it appear as if the bees swim through the air.

Shortcode Glossary:
U = Ungated, free. M = Metered paywall. B = Metered paywall can be bypassed using private/incognito browsing. Full details of our shortcodes here.

This post is only for paying subscribers of The Browser, but please do forward it to any friends who deserve a treat today, especially if you think they might be interested in becoming Browser subscribers in the future.

Caroline Crampton, Editor-In-Chief; Robert Cottrell, Founding Editor; Kaamya Sharma, Editor; Jodi Ettenberg, Editor-At-Large; Dan Feyer, Crossword Editor; Uri Bram, CEO & Publisher; Sylvia Bishop, Assistant Publisher; Al Breach, Founding Director

Editorial comments and letters to the editor: editor@thebrowser.com
Technical issues and support requests: support@thebrowser.com
Or write at any time to the publisher: uri@thebrowser.com

You can opt in or out of any of our newsletters (weekday Browser, Sunday Supplement and more) at your Email Preferences menu. And you can always Give The Browser, surely the finest possible gift for discerning friends and family.