Helen Lewis, The Atlantic

Helen Lewis

The Atlantic

United Kingdom

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Recent:
  • Unknown
Past:
  • The Atlantic
  • New Statesman
  • The New York Times
  • Financial Times
  • Nieman Reports

Past articles by Helen:

Roald Dahl Can Never Be Made Nice

Rewriting his novels is about corporate safetyism, not social justice. → Read More

Liz Truss Fought the Lettuce, and the Lettuce Won

Britain will have a new prime minister next week. → Read More

The Guggenheim’s Scapegoat

A museum curator was forced out of her job over allegations of racism that an investigation deemed unfounded. What did her defenestration accomplish? → Read More

The Second Elizabethan Age Has Ended

For seven decades, Elizabeth II gave Britain a constant, even as her kingdom was transformed. → Read More

The Twitches That Spread on Social Media

Around the world, doctors have noticed teenage patients reporting the sudden onset of tics. Is this the first illness spread by social media? → Read More

Hollywood Discovers the Middle-Aged Woman

Thanks to the streaming wars, stars in their 40s are finally getting interesting roles. → Read More

Where Are the Iconic COVID-19 Images?

The scarcity of memorable pandemic photographs reveals something about this crisis. → Read More

Helen Lewis’s notebook: The hubris of Cummings, and how to play Have I Got Lewis for You

It would take a heart of stone not to laugh at the downfall of Dominic Cummings. The eye test! The “Nasa-style control room”! → Read More

The Rare Sight of a Political Reckoning

Britain’s Labour Party has suspended its former leader. Who knew in this partisan age that politicians could hold their own side to account? → Read More

The Conservative Case for Liberalizing Divorce

Britain has finally passed a new law allowing for no-fault divorce, all without a culture war. → Read More

Helen Lewis’s Diary: Political gaslighting, learning to write in American, and linking the past with the present

Why gaslighting is not so much about outright lies but obfuscation and sleight-of-hand. → Read More

Prince Charles, the (Famous) Human Face of a Pandemic

The heir to the British throne getting the coronavirus will make this outbreak seem real to many people. → Read More

Tom Stoppard’s new play Leopoldstadt is inseparable from its author’s biography

There is no separating the artist and the art in Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt, which draws directly on his life as a refugee from Nazism for its plot. → Read More

Britain Is Fraying. Why Did Boris Johnson Get Reelected?

The country’s departure from the European Union can no longer camouflage its deep problems. → Read More

The relentlessly gynaecological joys of The Welkin

Set in 1759, this play is messy, ambitious and genre-bending. → Read More

The Last Chance to Stop Brexit

An election set for December will define Britain’s path: whether it will, improbably, stay in the European Union, or depart on Boris Johnson’s terms. → Read More

Donmar Warehouse’s [BLANK] skewers middle-class feminist benevolence

It’s not always possible to pinpoint the moment you fall in love, but this time it was easy. Halfway through Alice Birch’s extraordinary came the unmistakable opening bars of a two-decades-old song that I assumed everyone apart from me had forgotten (“Fuck the Pain Away” by Peaches, a staple of my workout playlist). It was a moment of unexpected human connection, and it reminded me of James… → Read More

Britain’s Supreme Court Tests Boris Johnson’s Brexit Populism

The country’s effort to leave the European Union has trapped its politicians in a web of obligations. → Read More

The Perils of Leadership Based on Charisma Instead of Strategy

Surrogates have to contort themselves to curry favor with the likes of Boris Johnson and Donald Trump. → Read More

Jellyfish: exploring the sex life of a woman with Down's syndrome

In the National Theatre's new play, Kelly is 27, a virgin and desperate to know what sex is like. → Read More