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Nov 21, 2024 | 
stiffupperquip.substack.com | James Harris
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Apr 24, 2024 | 
brill.com | James Harris
Keywords: Hobbes; Pufendorf; Locke; sovereignty; people; multitude1 HobbesIn the early iterations of his political thought, The Elements of Law and De Cive, Hobbes proposed a new account of the people. He proposed, in other words, a new account of how the people exists both as many individuals and, at the same time, as a corporate entity, or person, possessed of a single will and a capacity for agency.
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Apr 4, 2024 | 
stiffupperquip.substack.com | James Harris
The most successful thing I have ever written was an article about failure. I suppose I was asking for that. The piece has just ticked over its ten thousandth view, and it brought a big bump to the audience of this newsletter upon its publication. More importantly, people from both my life and strangers reached out to tell me the piece had resonated with their experience. They felt the cultural conversation about failure as a stepping stone to success was incongruent with their experience.
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Mar 21, 2024 | 
stiffupperquip.substack.com | Ariane Sherine |James Harris
Something a bit different this week. is a writer and a comedian from North London and we’ve been friends since our days on the London open mic circuit about (gulp) ten years ago now. Ariane has just released her debut pop album ‘Better’ (listen or buy here), which sounds a bit like Saint Etienne, Dubstar and early Magnetic Fields, topped Ariane’s own warm human touch. Enjoy - lengthy introspection in crystalline prose will be back next week. So Ariane. Tell me how we know each other.
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Jan 17, 2024 | 
arianesherine.substack.com | Ariane Sherine |James Harris
I’ve always known I wanted kids, to the extent that I conceived aged 24. This is very young in the UK, where the average age to give birth is 31. When, early into my first pregnancy, my then-boyfriend turned violent and I felt I had no choice but to have a termination, I descended into a year-long depression. I got pregnant again aged 30, and gave birth to my daughter in April 2011. She was a screamy, difficult baby and toddler, and this hasn’t changed. I love her with every fibre of my being.
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Nov 23, 2023 | 
shorturl.at | James Harris
There is generally no limit on the amount of laughs a comedian wants to get. The more, the better, which explains why a consistent form of consolation to the unlucky comedian, ‘People weren’t laughing, but they were really enjoying it!’ is of so little use. Laughs are everything to an act; if people enjoy your comedy, they signal through laughter.
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Sep 28, 2023 | 
stiffupperquip.substack.com | James Harris
The latest paying subscribers post is out on Sunday. As I mentioned in my year-opening post, I’ve dropped prices for paid subscriptions; an annual sub now costs just £35. Do sign up for full archive access, comment privileges and chats, and the full five columns per month. A monthly ‘Stiff Upper Quip’ subscription costs just 95p a week and it’s a bargain £35 a year. Go on!Now on with today’s post. It’s always a slight risk to write a piece about a work of art, as many of you may not seen it.
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Jul 28, 2023 | 
dropzone.com | James Harris
USPA Basic Safety Regulations. I would not necessarily be the best person toget advice from...as I still think EFS is a BSR. So I have arranged for you to spend some timewith the experts on the subject. These are the coolest jumpers of all time... They have experience and skill galore... Using Mikey's Time Machine... You even get to jump with them... That is...if you have a 'D' licenceor a 'C'...OK a 'B' with some potential...
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Jul 20, 2023 | 
stiffupperquip.substack.com | James Harris
Stiff Upper Quip broke 1000 subscribers this week, a big personal target of mine. Thank you so much for all who read (or at least receive) it. As I’ve said elsewhere, a writer can do anything if they have an audience, and over 1000 people is more than a great many celebrated writers have kept going with. Here’s to many more - and please, if you enjoy this newsletter, tell other people about it. Now, on with today’s column.
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Jun 29, 2023 | 
stiffupperquip.substack.com | James Harris
One thing we do have in the UK is extremely good political columnists. Stephen Bush, Andrew Rawnsley, Helen Lewis, Ian Dunt – our polity may not be in any kind of inspiring shape, but we do have wonderful writers to anatomize its decline. Not the least of these, in fact perhaps the best, is Rafael Behr, former political editor of the New Statesman and a current weekly columnist for The Guardian.
