Jenny Uglow

2 weeks ago | nybooks.com | Jenny Uglow

Orchids grow in tropical forests and on icy mountains, in lowland bogs and wildflower meadows. They are found on every continent apart from Antarctica. Some grow on the ground, others climb high; some self-pollinate, others depend on insects. There are currently around 30,000 named species, and although many are threatened with extinction, botanists find new ones every year. Two new books, The Lost Orchid by Sarah Bilston and Saving Orchids by Philip Seaton and Lawrence W.

1 month ago | the-tls.co.uk | Jenny Uglow

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2 months ago | nybooks.com | Jenny Uglow

On July 21, 1969, at a time when most people didn’t have televisions, one fifth of humanity watched a live broadcast of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin climbing down from their landing craft onto the surface of the moon. I was among those millions of watchers.

Nov 28, 2024 | nybooks.com | Jenny Uglow

Across the English-speaking world, thousands of people are looking forward to Handel’s Messiah at Christmas—booking tickets, rooting out scores, or preparing to sing “the Messiah from scratch” for the first or the fiftieth time. Originally intended to be performed at Easter, for many people it is now as much a part of Christmas as a carol or a tree. What is it that thrills audiences and lifts the hearts of singers?

Oct 31, 2024 | nybooks.com | Jenny Uglow

The Vienna that Richard Cockett explores is not a sensuous city or a grand city of art. It is, as the subtitle of his book makes clear, a cerebral city, a “city of ideas.” I’m wary of subtitles in which the subject “created the modern world,” and in this case I’m sure other cities could make the same claim, but Cockett is engagingly persuasive, pulling a number of threads from the tangled history of early-twentieth-century Vienna and showing how they are woven into Western culture and politics.