Allister Heath
Practice Makes Perfect
The Craftsman
By Richard Sennett
Allen Lane / The Penguin Press 3w25pp £25
This is the sort of book I wish had been written a long time ago. For all its limitations, and it has many, Richard Sennett’s latest tome is nevertheless the best exposition yet of why work can be a good thing in and of itself and not just as a means to earning a living. At a time when it has become fashionable to create an almost automatic dichotomy between ‘work’ and ‘life’, Sennett’s paean to craftsmanship helps to show that the reality is more complicated.
First, let us get the semantics out of the way: to call for a renewed appreciation of craftsmanship in 2008 is invariably to be met with incomprehension (if you don’t believe me, try it on some of those around you). It suggests a reactionary longing for small-scale artisanship and cottage
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
‘The Second World War was won in Oxford. Discuss.’
@RankinNick gives the question his best shot.
Nicholas Rankin - We Shall Fight in the Buttery
Nicholas Rankin: We Shall Fight in the Buttery - Oxford’s War 1939–1945 by Ashley Jackson
literaryreview.co.uk
For the first time, all of Sylvia Plath’s surviving prose, a massive body of stories, articles, reviews and letters, has been gathered together in a single volume.
@FionaRSampson sifts it for evidence of how the young Sylvia became Sylvia Plath.
Fiona Sampson - Changed in a Minute
Fiona Sampson: Changed in a Minute - The Collected Prose of Sylvia Plath by Peter K Steinberg (ed)
literaryreview.co.uk
The ruling class has lost its sprezzatura.
On porky rolodexes and the persistence of elite reproduction, for the @Lit_Review: