The Newsletter of (Not Quite) Everything

Home
Archive
About
What Do We Have To Lose
If Keir Starmer won’t even make a moral case against deporting our friends and neighbours, then what is the point of him? Plus: some natural borders…
 • 
Jonn Elledge
8
Book Club: What Shape is History?
An extract from The Cultural Tutor: Forty-Nine Lessons You Wish You’d Learned at School, by Sheehan Quirke.
 • 
Jonn Elledge
 and 
The Cultural Tutor
The Answer May Surprise You
This week: is the British right approaching a tipping point? Also, some people who lived longer than you thought; and a century of Sheffield just…
 • 
Jonn Elledge
14
Why is there a universe anyway?
A thematically connected pair of extracts from my new (old) book.
 • 
Jonn Elledge
4
A nation is a shared illusion – so a government has the power to change it
Also this week: who was the first king of England? And my favourite giant semi-aquatic rat.
 • 
Jonn Elledge
10
The Eleventh Plague
This week: I am begging my government to just once try to be normal. Also: a new (old) way of dividing Europe, thanks to the Knights of St John; and…
 • 
Jonn Elledge
13
Borders are Back, Baby: From Trump and Transylvania to Brexit and Bolivia's Navy
Episode 2540: Jonn Elledge's Brief History of the World in 47 Borders
Published on Keen On America • 
38:10

August 2025

It’s Just Wrong, and They Should Say So
This week: if you think handing asylum seekers to the Taliban is good politics, you’re a bad person. Also: on the non-existence of purple; and a map of…
 • 
Jonn Elledge
19
In Praise of Curation
This week: a self-interested defence of someone just showing you the good stuff. Also: the longest mountain chain on earth; and what is a stink pipe?
 • 
Jonn Elledge
8
Book Club: On race, cricket, and the history of the West Indies
An extract from Test Cricket: A History, by Tim Wigmore.
 • 
Jonn Elledge
3
The Strangely Unnoticed Death Of Tory England
Also this week: the further adventures of Charley in austerity Britain; and some maps of Britain’s rail usage.
 • 
Jonn Elledge
8
If We Don’t Hang Together…
This week: Nye Bevan, Labour and the case for solidarity; some extremely large places; and the European train time simulator you always wanted.
 • 
Jonn Elledge
14
© 2025 Jonn Elledge
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start writingGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture