The Fence, Live and Direct

Welcome

to the

Pleasuredome

Welcome

to the

Pleasuredome

Róisín Lanigan loves to be beside the seaside.

A Noble Sediment

Watch out cork dorks! Henry Jeffreys slices through the sommelier spin.

The View from

Mount Olympus

The View from

Mount Olympus

The 2012 Olympic Ceremony still holds firm in the British imagination. Ten years on, Richard Woodall unpicks the fantasy.

An Outsider's Guide

to the Last Week

in British Politics

An Outsider's Guide

to the Last Week

in British Politics

The week that was in Westminster, filleted by The Fence staff.

Boomers

for

Zoomers

Boomers

for

Zoomers

The Fence imagines how famous Boomers would cope in jobs characteristically performed by Gen Z-ers.

Blackbird Fly, Blackbird Fly

Luke Dunne joins the hunt for a rare cinematic jewel.

Babylon Zoo

When he was younger, Thomas Gorton worked as an alien on Merseyside.

Fourth Estate

or Fifth Column?

Fourth Estate

or Fifth Column?

A series of experts explain the political energies of the British mediascape.

Exit,

Pursued by a Bear

Exit,

Pursued by a Bear

Before the pandemic, London’s theatres were in a state of artistic necrosis. Our theatre world insider asks whether, after a year of enforced shutdown, anything will change.

Novelists, Online

We speak to authors on both sides of the Atlantic about their addiction to social media.

Riding

with the

Herne Hill

Foxhounds

Riding

with the

Herne Hill

Foxhounds

Mary Harrington follows the urban hunt.

Caring for an Author

Rob Palk has some stern words for the writing community.

Monet!

The Fence delves into the relationship between fine art and fortune.

When I Hear Sirens

Britain’s probation services are overwhelmed. Our insider speaks out.

The Party Line

Life is one big campaign trail for our anonymous politico.

The Grasping Vine

Love wine? Don’t have that much money? Henry Jeffreys has some advice for impecunious connoisseurs.

Lunch with Laurence Fox

We take the actor-turned-activist to a steak lunch in Mayfair.

Hermindedness

Do good novelists have to write good novels?

Inside the Battle

to Save Nour

Inside the Battle

to Save Nour

An account from one of the team who helped the beloved Brixton cash and carry to ward off an avaricious property developer-turned-DJ.

Flann’s Journalism School

Our political correspondent is that peat-hearted Hibernian, Flann O’Brien himself.

Call Me

Dr Rachel Hawke, a couples therapist and consultant, tries not to take her work home with her. No easy task.

What Next for the London

Restaurant World?

What Next for the London

Restaurant World?

The London restaurant world is fucked. Jonathan Nunn tells who is the most fucked.

The Coronavirus Diaries

Of Samuel Pepys

The Coronavirus Diaries

Of Samuel Pepys

O, to languish upon my couch, and see my nation prove themelves to be mere cowards!

London Haunts II

Flann

about

Town

Flann

about

Town

Richard Benyon. Owen Paterson. Antoinette Sandbach. All present and correct at Chuka Ummuna’s silent disco.

Diary

of an Urban

Parson

Diary

of an Urban

Parson

True and affecting vignettes from the life and times of the Reverend JJ Cowan, from which the reader may discern much of the happy state of the Church of England in our nation’s fair capital.

Rewatching

The Hobbit Trilogy

Rewatching

The Hobbit Trilogy

An adventure through an impossible quest: a half-cooked trilogy of films on a long-haul flight.

An Ethnographic

Study of the Young

Male Journalists

of London

An Ethnographic

Study of the Young

Male Journalists

of London

Our exhaustively researched compendium of the upstart myth-makers scribbling their way up the metropolitan ladder.

Evelyn Waugh,

A Fictive Seer

Evelyn Waugh,

A Fictive Seer

On Evelyn Waugh, that novelist so beloved of the Brexiteers; England and Englishness, and the pernicious after-life of satire.