melissa denes Profile
melissa denes

@melissadenes

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Associate editor, culture, Times and Sunday Times (mat cover). Previously: EIC, Guardian Weekend magazine; Guardian arts editor; New Statesman long reads

London
Joined June 2009
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
4 years
Thank you for all the nice things said today about @guardianweekend . It means the world to a 💯 team currently sending next week’s issue: we’ll give it our all while it lasts. Hugely sad for @guardianreview @guardianguide Support @guardian if you value it
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
3 years
Writers, reporters, publishers, agents: I’m now open to pitches as features editor @NewStatesman : looking for deeply reported and narrative-driven long form (3000w+) that gets to the heart of how we live now 1/3
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
3 years
After nearly 20 years on the paper, and 400+ issues of @guardianweekend , today is my last at the Guardian. I will miss colleagues hugely, but it’s time for a change and a lie-down. We had a blast though
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
4 months
Work news! After two years at the New Statesman, I’m excited to join the brilliant @timesculture team as associate editor, culture and books, for 2024. Particularly, not exclusively, keen on hearing from theatre & vis art worlds - but all good things considered
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
6 years
First time we've done this: you can now order @galdemzine 's takeover of @guardianweekend through the Guardian Bookshop: hurry while limited stocks (500 issues) last!
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
3 years
Thrilled to be joining @NewStatesman ’s brilliant team of editors and writers, where I’ll be features editor from June. Send me your best long read ideas and stories around then!
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
4 years
RIP lovely Clive James, the funniest, kindest, most original, and only very occasionally irascible of contributors, who always hit a deadline and never missed a beat. He worried that his credibility as a dying man was in tatters, but thank God his writing never flagged
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
2 years
This week’s @NewStatesman , guest edited by ⁦ @michaelsheen on class, culture & national identity cover @jeremydeller ⁩ ⁦ @garyyounge ⁩ on myths of nationhood new story by Ali Smith ⁦⁩ @NicolaSturgeon ⁩ ⁦⁦ @DavidOlusoga ⁩ ⁦ @kaetempest ⁩ ⁦Tony Blair
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
5 years
COVER REVEAL! Exclusive candid inspiring everything interview with @MichelleObama taking questions from @katyperry @SadiqKhan @Carole_King @ottolenghi Miley Cyrus @jeremydeller & loads more. My and (the first lady's) favourite on the cover from @ginayashere
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
2 years
'Within government we now have what amounts to a tax on ethics': @Martha_Gill on how Allegra Stratton became partygate's only casualty
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
7 years
Seriously, @BBCr4today : if John Humphrys consistently sees the rise in rape & assault reporting as an irritation for men, recast those items
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
5 years
Cover reveal: tomorrow's @guardianweekend is our 4th annual conversations special, with @Hannahgadsby & Roxane Gay @rgay , @NicolaSturgeon & Rachel Kushner, Steve McQueen & @TaranaBurke , @EmilyThornberry & @StephenMangan AND THEY ARE ALL BRILLIANT
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
5 years
Our favourite, wildest blind date ever - 10/10 x 2, missing knickers - is currently ’s most-read by a long chalk
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
2 years
This is a beautiful long read by @petepaphides , on his father’s sudden death and the music they shared, but this is the detail that gets me: (no paywall)
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
6 months
I wrote about private schools and the cold winds of change blowing through them. Can their £3bn in tax breaks and charitable status survive a Labour government - the most state-educated in history? 1/4 ⬇️
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
7 years
Tomorrow's mag is a good 'un: @GillianA , Dave Eggers on Dubya & Trump, Ariel Levy @avlskies on love and loss, JW Anderson @HepworthGallery
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
6 months
‘In 2021-22 Eton would have paid more than £10m in VAT were it charged at 20% on the £50.6m in fees shown in its accounts. Add exemptions for business rates, corporation tax and gift aid, and the taxpayer subsidises an Eton boy at a much higher rate than a state-school pupil’ 3/4
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
2 years
Are we facing a mental health crisis, or overdiagnosing mass unhappiness? This is smart, nuanced and moving by @SEMcBain on the psychiatrists who argue against labels
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
3 years
Send me a brief outline (1-3 pars) at melissa.denes[at] with a sense of how you’d report it, and why it matters/will make a gripping read: I am all ears 3/3
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
2 years
I spoke to Elena Ferrante about Maggie Gyllenhaal’s new film of The Lost Daughter, Olivia Colman as anti-heroine, bad mothers, rewrites, dolls and her lifelong love affair with cinema
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
3 years
The magazine remains in the very best hands, belonging to @ruthlewy , before an autumn reinvention by the great @meropemills , who gave me the job of a lifetime eight terrifying years ago, for which much thanks 🙏
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
6 years
Tomorrow's cover: an unmissable Decca Aitkenhead @deccajourno interview with Anthony Scaramucci, on his 11 days in the White House ('totally enjoyable'), Trump ('very funny'), @guardianweekend ('communist magazine') & oh so much more
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
3 years
No field off-limits, but interested in climate, inequality, science, internet culture, crime, sport, health & more. International reporting/writers v welcome 2/3
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
2 years
That Tory MPs think wearing a skirt is a ‘ploy’ only reveals their/the PM’s inability to look a clever woman in the face. Read @AngelaRayner 's thread and Kate Mossman’s brilliant, subtle profile of her instead:
@AngelaRayner
Angela Rayner 🌹
2 years
Women in politics face sexism and misogyny every day - and I’m no different. This morning’s is the latest dose of gutter journalism courtesy of @MoS_Politics 🧵👇🏻1/9
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
2 years
The Met's decision to charge six people for attending Sarah Everard's vigil is even uglier when you consider her murderer 'arrested' her for breaking lockdown rules. This is brilliant by @RMCunliffe on why politicians look the other way
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
6 years
It's in, the one that nearly breaks us: conversation special ft @HillaryClinton @wmarybeard @nick_clegg @renireni 1/2
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
8 years
As Facebook nears 13, a whole generation of kids have had their lives shared online - and they're not all happy
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
2 years
Love this @beckybarnicoat and will 100% ignore some issues with the colour coding
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
3 years
This is a beautiful obit by ⁦ @shattenstone ⁩, full of surprises, for Guardian picture editor Mark Bygraves. Pic at the top is classic/daily half-hour-to-deadline-got-you-a-world-exclusive-boss face, and I’ll miss it
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
8 months
This is a rich and subtle portrait by @Will___lloyd of Rory Stewart’s self-mythologising, from Iraq to the polishing of his Wiki page as ‘Chezza88’ (his mother’s bulldog)
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
2 years
This is an incredible story by Kate Mossman: the rollercoaster love affair that inspired Joni Mitchell’s Carey, as told by ‘mean old daddy’ Cary himself (she loved him, couldn’t spell him)
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
4 months
Who wants to prosecute rape in 2024? Almost no one, as barristers quit and the courts collapse (sometimes literally). Last year I followed two trials to understand how we got here  🙏  @jennystevens @kiracochrane , but especially to Tyrone Silcott
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
2 years
Stop calling yourselves the Grown Ups, it’s infantile.
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
8 years
@MarinaOLoughlin you only won bloody critic of the year! Xx #pressawards
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
3 years
This marks something very close to the full set of 80s and 90s legends for @HadleyFreeman , and is a deserved current most-read on
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
5 years
‘You need to remove the politics sometimes and think about humanity’: powerful interview with Jacinda Ardern by @toby_etc
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
7 years
The KGB agent with two families, a giant ego & an impossible mission: 110% gripping story @shaunwalker7 #longreads
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
8 years
Woop! Congrats team @guardianweekend : you won supplement of the year #pressawards
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
6 months
Honoured to be in this beautiful best-of @gdnlongread magazine ft a typeface lost to time & linen-embossed cover in fluoro Pantone 804. Available in all good transport hubs tomorrow and @Guardian_Bkshop now. Preview + lovely designers geeking out here ⬇️
@itsnicethat
It's Nice That
6 months
The Guardian revives typeface lost to time for The Long Read Magazine >
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
9 years
Moving house. Still can't throw out this 10-year-old lotion. It's all in the small print http://t.co/V4HVgET11B
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
3 years
‘If Weinstein’s conviction was a hopeful moment, any optimism I felt is gone’: extraordinary piece by Caitlin McNamara on a year-long fight to hold another powerful man to account
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
6 years
Tomorrow's all-new @guardianweekend ft Kate Moss (in @Oxfam ) i'viewed by David Bailey, Clive James on The Crown + Family + new columns by @sharmadeanreid @cocobyname Elena Ferrante. buy in print if you can!
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
5 years
Such terrible news - Deborah Orr was a brilliant dancer, writer, editor and I think of a line of hers often, on nits, politics or boozy lunches. This on her accidental hiring of Alexander Chancellor was typically great, and shows why she was so loved
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
3 years
‘Her exploitation serves as micro- and macrocosm for the entire girl industrial complex’: whip-smart, big-hearted piece on Britney Spears and the cost of female success by @lenadunham
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
9 years
Ahead of that heatwave, here's @salihughes 50 best beauty buys under £20 http://t.co/MLqyGaOGQ2 Cut out & keep in @guardianweekend
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
3 years
@bellamackie Does Vienetta count? £1 and the magic is still strong: cut first slice for my daughter to a gasp of 'It's so... ROYAL'
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
6 months
‘Private schools argue they take pressure off the state. But they cost the rest of us through “tax expenditure” – the money the state doesn’t get to spend on other schools (or paramedics, or buses). This sum – £3bn a year – could quadruple the national libraries budget’ 2/4
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
3 years
Congrats to two very smart @NewStatesman writers on their @bsmeinfo win and high recommendation, respectively: @SEMcBain and @sarahmanavis . Highly recommend Sophie's long read on people who hear voices here 1/2
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
1 year
This is a fascinating listen (and read in this week's 110th anniversary @NewStatesman ) covering 40 years behind the scenes in Westminster, also ft @helenlewis
@mehdirhasan
Mehdi Hasan
1 year
This was fun to do: talking UK political journalism & history in a @NewStatesman political editors’ reunion podcast, featuring @AndrewMarr9 , @JackieAshley , @stephenkb , @rafaelbehr , @patrickwintour , @steverichards14 , @SarahbaxterSTM , yours truly, and more:
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
3 years
‘They say if you work, you’ll pull yourself up. It’s a lie’: thank you to the Williams siblings for sharing their stories with @craig_easton @hackneylad , from 1992 to 2020
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
9 years
'I drank myself to a place where I didn’t care, woke up a person who cared enormously' @sarahhepola 's blackout years http://t.co/XufvtK80cr
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
7 years
Brilliant sad true column by @HadleyFreeman on miscarriage: 'I'm so tired of women feeling they have to soldier on'
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
6 years
This is one of those pieces that takes this editor’s breath away when it lands. Kudos @ladyhaja
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
1 year
‘Nothing prepares you… this is scorched earth’: so many telling images and conversations in this journey from Ukraine’s devastated frontline to Kyiv, by @MacaesBruno
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
3 years
After completing his master's on ancient pig foddering, Simon Roper created an oral history of the London accent from 1340-2006: love this by Kate Mossman on a very English YouTube star
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
4 years
‘I think you should feel able to put them on the next flight out’: what the foreign office told the US the day before Anne Sacoolas and family quit the UK. @shattenstone talks to the parents of Harry Dunn about grief, Trump & their criminal case vs Raab
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
3 years
‘It wasn’t inevitable - we all bear responsibility’: ⁦ @DMiliband ⁩, @Keir_Starmer , @Ed_Miliband , @edballs , @debmattinson and many more take a long hard look at how Labour lost half its seats. Forensic, revealing long read by ⁦ @harrytlambert
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
4 years
Ask not what will make you happy (you don't know) but what will enlarge you (you do): favourite bit of advice from @guardianweekend resident wise owl, moving on to bigger things in style 🙏 @oliverburkeman
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
3 years
Loved working on this, even if remotely this time: out Saturday
@galdemzine
gal-dem
3 years
We’ve been working with @guardianweekend to co-edit an all-Black special of their annual conversation issue, featuring discussions between eight industry greats & the winning entries from our young writers competition! Pick up a copy in The Guardian this Saturday to see it!💫
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
5 years
Thrilled for everyone @guardianweekend , you made the 2018 newspaper magazine of the year! And ace to get a judges’ shout out for ‘a great stable of writers’: without you ETC @bsmeinfo #bsmeawards
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
1 year
This is such an original deep dive into the strange, lonely mind of the King, ft Steve Bannon, Ceausescu, Kathleen Raine, Transylvania and a cartload of cheese
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
2 years
'He passed a law banning partying. He instructed his clowns to party day and night. Mingle. Double dip': if you haven't yet read @EdwardDocx on the demise of Boris🤡, it is a wild, brilliant catharsis (💯art by @jackmrhughes )
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
7 months
This is nasty, and from the 2016 London mayoral playbook, when David Cameron/Lynton Crosby sent Indian voters a dogwhistle letter backing Goldsmith vs Khan
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@REWearmouth
Rachel Wearmouth
7 months
Full story and reaction after Susan Hall’s “vile” comments about Sadiq Khan
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
2 years
'I haven’t met a politician who is ready to do what it takes. And by that, I mean resigning' @gretathunberg and @bjork talk greenwashing, music, the matriarchy and dog memes, from her upcoming guest edit of @NewStatesman
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
8 years
Big congrats @AlysFowler , columnist of year at Garden Media Guild Awards. Our new garden podcast also best in show
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
11 months
Huge congrats @garyyounge , winner of @TheOrwellPrize for Journalism, writer of unimprovable sentences, for pieces including this on racism, critical thinking and the commentariat for @NewStatesman Free to read
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
2 years
‘I’m going back to where I started, with a dog-eared notebook in my pocket and cheap pens leaking on to my shirts… I’m joining writers I’ve relied on for years’ Lovely @NewStatesman column by newbie @AndrewMarr9
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
3 years
This looks and sounds GREAT: congrats Merope Mills @ruthlewy @charnorth @liesespencer @gwilymmumford @AndyPietra Maggie Murphy @chrisclarkecc @shattenstone @Joe_Stone_ and all bright sparks involved🙌🎉🎉
@siancain
Sian Cain
3 years
Here we go! First Saturday magazine out tomorrow. I think I speak for many on the team when I say I feel proud, extremely tired, a tad peckish
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
2 years
‘Let daylight in, and it turns to dust’: this is smart by @TanyaGold1 on William in the Caribbean
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
3 years
Philately, fellatio, leather trousers: a rollercoaster new year Blind Date, right down to the scores (and a reminder of life pre tier 4, when this happened) 🔥
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
8 years
Farage's victory lap with desktop flag: just brilliant by @MarinaHyde
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
5 years
Maggie Murphy art director of the year @guardianweekend #bsmeawards 💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻🎉🎉🎉
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
10 years
When Harry met Louis met Zayn met Liam met Niall met @tomlamont , #1Dinterview ONLY in @guardianweekend http://t.co/Fiep6F7tjb
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
6 years
Today’s cover: @emmabrockes writing with typical brilliance on the rollercoaster from deciding to have kids, solo, to twins
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
1 year
Former Met senior leader Brian Paddick told me the Casey report shows how little has changed. He was warned, “It’s OK to be female, black, or gay – but not more than one, and provided you behave like a straight white man.” More about police culture here:
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
2 years
‘Politicians deny, delay, distract’: @GretaThunberg 's guest edit of New Statesman, out TODAY cover Alexis Tsegba 🍄 @bjork on mushrooms and the matriarchy 🎨 art @aiww 🦋 @rebeccasolnit on why despair is a luxury + @margaretatwood @GhoshAmitav @vanessa_vash @GhostPanther & more
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
6 years
A bit about tomorrow's ace @galdemzine takeover, thank you @magculture . BUY IT IN PRINT IF YOU CAN!
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
6 years
I've watched men write meetings minutes without me on them, but this takes the biscuit. Thank you @andevers
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
12 years
Imogen Heap performs a capella to 1928 French surrealist film: watch 1hr perf here http://t.co/gX1UUdXt
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
5 years
Elena Ferrante’s last @guardianweekend column, after a year that covered first love, cigarettes, Matteo Salvini, Instagram, insomnia, Daniel Day-Lewis & more (all on site). Huge pleasure working with her, translator Ann Goldstein & illustrator @AndreaUcini
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
9 months
'The Exclusive Brethren don't vote, watch TV or eat with outsiders. And for those who leave - like my family - there is no going back' Definitive, deeply moving long read on the Brethren (whose businesses won £2.2bn in Covid contracts) by @pippa_bailey .
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@melissadenes
melissa denes
5 years
It’s here! @MichelleObama talks falling in love, feeling lost in her 20s, her passion for Prince Philip, keeping it real in the White House & much more, with superstars & schoolkids. Click through for audio
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