Reaching for Utopia: Making Sense of An Age of Upheaval - Essays and profiles

An essential book for anyone wishing to understand the turbulent new times in which we live.
§
Reaching for Utopia brings together insightful essays and profiles chronicling the remarkable political and cultural transformations of the last decade - from the fall of Blair to the rise of Corbyn and Brexit. He has met and interviewed all the major political players shaping and changing the way we live today.

Reaching for Utopia brings together insightful essays and profiles chronicling the remarkable political and cultural transformations of the last decade - from the fall of Gordon Brown, to the rise of Corbyn and the radical left, to Brexit. Cowley is fascinated by the men and women who are creating the history of our era as well as those who document it. He has met and interviewed nearly all the major political players shaping and changing the way we live today.

The book features fascinating, wide-ranging narrative profiles of Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Ed Miliband, Jeremy Corbyn, Alex Salmond, Nigel Farage, David Cameron, George Osborne and Theresa May. Cowley is unusual in having access to party leaders and prime ministers on both the left and right.

The book also features penetrating essays on writers such as George Orwell, John le Carré, Kazuo Insiguro, and Ian McEwan, personal essays, an investigation into the so-called Brexit Murder, and a striking conversati on with the political philosopher Michael Sandel.

Cowley is one of the most influential journalists in Britain. He is notable for being both a political and literary journalist. And he also writes about sport, especially football, and covered the 2006 World Cup in Germany for the Observer.

He has been widely credited with transforming the fortunes of the New Statesman, which in 2017 has recorded its highest print circulation for nearly 40 years as well as becoming a major digital title with rapidly growing online profile. According to the European Press Prize, 'Cowley has succeeded in revitalising the New Statesman and re-establishing its position as an influential political and cultural weekly. He has given the New Statesman an edge and a relevance to current affairs it hasn't had for years.'

In 2017, at the British Society of Magazine Editors awards, Cowley won the editor of the year award (politics and current affairs) for the third time. In 2018, he launch ed New Statesman America.

Rezension:

The subtitle for this collection of essays, profiles and interviews by New Statesman editor Jason Cowley is "making sense of an age of upheaval" and largely he succeeds. The section on politics and power is fascinating. Cowley is determined to understand antagonists, to explain the dominant individuals shaping our era. The likes of Arsène Wenger, Tiger Woods, Kazuo Ishiguro and Ian McEwan are explored in the Lives and Letters collection, too, making for a well-rounded collection by a thoughtful and engaging writer.
Ben East The Observer