Intellectual biography
Churning
Girish Karnad (1938–2019): Playwright and actor (August ’19)
n+1
The Chap Inside
The late fiction of RK Narayan (Oct ’18)
Caravan
Is Goodness Natural?
Philippa Foot and the revival of essence (Nov ’17)
Aeon
“Hope Means What?”
RK Laxman, the political cartoon and pessimism (Jan ’17)
Caravan
How not to be a chucklehead
The life and afterlives of JL Austin (Nov ’16)
Aeon
Openly in Total
Bhupen Khakhar’s experiments with truth (Nov ’16)
Caravan
Seeing Like a Sociologist
MN Srinivas and the idea of fieldwork (Mar ’16)
Caravan
Is fun fun?
Aubrey Menen and the idea of the minor writer (Jun ’15)
Caravan
Reading the Small Print
AK Ramanujan as poet, critic and translator (Aug ’13)
Caravan
Non-fiction reviews
Clare Pollard, Fierce Bad Rabbits: The Tales Behind Children’s Picture Books (£)
The Oldie
Kathleen Jamie, Surfacings (£)
The Oldie
Robert Macfarlane, Underland (£)
The Daily Telegraph
AK Ramanujan, Journeys: A Poet’s Diary
Open
Jonathan Rée, Witcraft: A History of Philosophy in English
The Daily Telegraph
Deborah Baker, The Last Englishmen: Love, War, and the End of Empire
Bookforum
Armand D’Angour, Socrates in Love: The Making of a Philosopher (£)
The Daily Telegraph
Sue Prideaux, I am Dynamite: A Life of Friedrich Nietzsche
The Daily Telegraph
Edith Hall, Aristotle’s Way: How ancient wisdom can change your life (£)
The Daily Telegraph
David Lodge, Writer’s Luck: A Memoir
The Daily Telegraph
Justin EH Smith, The Philosopher: A History in Six Types
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Larissa MacFarquhar, Strangers Drowning Voyages to the Brink of Moral Extremity
The Hindu Business Line
Ferdinand Mount, The Tears of the Rajas: Mutiny, Money and Marriage in India 1805-1905
The Oxonian Review
TM Krishna, A Southern Music
Biblio
Brad Inwood and Raphael Woolf (trs), Aristotle: Eudemian Ethics
The Oxonian Review
Adil Jussawalla, Maps for a Mortal Moon
The Hindu Business Line
Sam Miller, A Strange Kind of Paradise
The Hindu Business Line
Ed Hawkins, Bookie Gambler Fixer Spy: A Journey to the Heart of Cricket’s Underworld
The Sunday Guardian
William Dalrymple, Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan
The Oxonian Review
André Béteille, Sunlight on the Garden
LiveMint
Anjan Sundaram, Stringer
LiveMint
Anatol Lieven, Pakistan: A Hard Country
The Oxonian Review
Ramachandra Guha, Makers of Modern India
The Caravan
Rory Stewart and Gerald Knaus, Can Intervention Work?
The Oxonian Review
Bill Morgan (ed.) The Selected Letters of Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder
The Oxonian Review
Zadie Smith, Changing my Mind: Occasional Essays
The Caravan
Philip Ziegler, Legacy: Cecil Rhodes, the Rhodes Trust and Rhodes Scholarships
New Statesman
Personal Essays
Rhodocycles
Must Rhodes fall? (Fall ’16)
n+1
Add Your Own Egg (unabridged) / Bringing Philosophy to Life (abridged)
Bernard Williams and the limits of philosophy (Jan ’16)
The Point / The Chronicle Review
Enid Blyton, Moralist
Enid Blyton and the reality of other people (Apr ’16)
Aeon
Fiction reviews
Ian McEwan, Machines Like Me (£)
The Daily Telegraph
Philip Hensher, The Friendly Ones
The Daily Telegraph
Alan Hollinghurst, The Sparsholt Affair
The Daily Telegraph
Arundhati Roy, The Ministry of Ultimate Happiness (£)
Literary Review
Aravind Adiga, Selection Day (£)
Literary Review
Karan Mahajan, The Association of Small Bombs (£)
Literary Review
Joanna Kavenna, A Field Guide to Reality (print only)
The Oldie
Kate Saunders, Five Children on the Western Front (print only)The Oldie
JK Rowling, The Casual Vacancy
LiveMint
Jeanette Winterson, The Daylight Gate
LiveMint
Alan Hollinghurst, The Stranger’s Child
The Caravan
Damon Galgut, Arctic Summer
The Hindu Business Line
Mohsin Hamid, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia
The Oxonian Review
Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger
New Statesman
Poetry reviews
Shrikant Varma, Magadh (tr. Soni)
The Oxonian Review
Features
India and the Dreaming Spires: Indian Traces at Oxford
The Hindu Business Line
Saturday School
Monthly magazine column in BLink, The Hindu Business Line, on philosophy and popular culture.
– On Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)
– On Season 1 of HBO’s Westworld (2016)