Journalist // tom dot lamont dot freelance at theguardian dot com // novel GOING HOME coming from @SceptreBooks // literary agent Jane Finigan @LandRAgency
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David has been an influence and a lodestar ever since I read those first intoxicating lines of Frobisher in chap 3 of Cloud Atlas. He enlarged my understanding of what's possible and permitted in fiction, ie anything, as long as it's careful, unboring, FELT. Bowled over by this
Just finished @tomlamont's fine & spirit-lifting debut novel of friendship, fatherhood, growth and forgiveness. A bluff song of praise to North London, peopled by engaging, fallible characters, and rich in glinting turns of phrase. @SceptreBooks.
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I went to the pub with Harry Styles and we spoke about life, love and bowel movements. No politics!
theguardian.com/music/2019/d…
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A year ago I saw a news item warning that half the UK’s fish and chip shops might close. I chose an area of excellence for the dish, the East Neuk of Fife, and hung around to see how they coped. It was a lot. Please read if you have time. Shop local. Tx
theguardian.com/food/2023/ju…
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I wrote a story for @prospect_uk about a crew of tabloid misfits who banded together with Prince Harry and an ex-MP to take on three massive media empires… It’s basically Star Wars or Guardians of the Galaxy but with civil courts instead of space
prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas…
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Met one outta One Direction -- Louis -- for a frank, lung-shredding chat about being a boyband lifer on day release theguardian.com/global/2017/…
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Where do you go when you’ve got nowhere to live? Dominic Van Allen, homeless for 25 years, bought a shovel and a powersaw and went... down
A story about the invisible homeless, for today’s @gdnlongread
theguardian.com/news/2020/ma…
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I’m flattered, happy and limitlessly scared to say that my debut novel GOING HOME will be published by @SceptreBooks in May 2024
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Talked with Billy Connolly about life, death and flying in your dreams like Iron Man. He reminded me a lot of my dad: Scottish, sweet, sarky, unbreakable— hard and soft at the same time
theguardian.com/culture/2021…
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Spent a long time reporting on this, the no-win decisions that took people in and out of Grenfell Tower on the night of June 14th. "Trapped", for @GQMagazine gq.com/story/grenfell-tower-…
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No exams. No sway. No means to disagree. The story of the 2020 summer grades crisis, when a generation of kids got evaluated by computer algorithm — leaving one to fight for his future. “Student versus algorithm”, for @gdnlongread
theguardian.com/education/20…
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I wrote this story for the September issue of GQ — a letter from Maranello in Italy, home of Ferrari and its resurgent Formula 1 team
gq.com/story/charles-leclerc…
(Thanks to @geoffgagnon, @willwelch and Matt Browne for the greenlight, the fuel, the steers)
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My new #longread for @GQMagazine — about a group of Nazi trackers on the cusp of retirement and the late, late trial of a suspected Holocaust abetter, one of the few still alive
gq.com/story/the-race-to-cat…
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Interviewed two all-time goodies, one for Saturday and @guardianweekend, one for Sunday and @ObsMagazine
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I met Frank Fisher — son, grandson, great-grandson of butchers — just a few weeks before his centuries-old butcher’s shop went out of business. This is the story of those last few weeks (also: knife wounds, ballroom dancing, giant sun lamps)
theguardian.com/news/2020/se…
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Churning spirals.. midnight Doritos.. pornstars.. pilgrims.. tycoons.. a grad with a dream.. This story about 1 day in the life of vending machines took me 200 days to finish, with thanks to @clarelongrigg & @davidedgarwolf for their patience, help, title
theguardian.com/business/202…
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Don’t think I’ve had more fun reporting a longread.. “So You Wanna Buy A Sports Team?”, for @GQMagazine — an access-all-areas journey inside the wild global bazaar of sports ownership, featuring skybox steaks, parting seas of stadium traffic and D.Beckham
gq.com/story/how-to-buy-a-pr…
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Dulwich v Goliath: a local team's fight to survive in changing London (and to win a prize they've been chasing for 100 years)...
Give this @gdnlongread I wrote a shot, even if you aren't a football fan
theguardian.com/football/201…
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Proofs of my novel just arrived, armoured with kind quotes from two writing heroes, and I want to blend this thing up and drink it with tapioca balls. GOING HOME, out in June, flavour tbc
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So happy to be included in this — can’t wait to read the other debuts
Thanks to @ObsNewReview and @sukidhanda for coaching me on how to sit on a stool and look sage
theguardian.com/books/2024/j…
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A tale of banana skins, baby giggles, home-schooling and a whole bunch of different epiphanies about the hidden labour of childcare. What’s changed for dads during this pandemic — and how might fatherhood itself be changing? New story for @guardianweekend
theguardian.com/lifeandstyle…
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Wrote about a disturbing few years in Brit betting shops. Team at @gdnlongread gave it a great title: The Big Gamble theguardian.com/business/201…
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This Saturday, in @guardianweekend read my interview with Harry Styles. Nothing weird really, just fucking great fun
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Frank Fisher, 90-year-old proprietor of a 300-year-old butcher shop in Derbyshire, sadly died this week. Amazing dude. I wrote about him for @gdnlongread in September.
theguardian.com/news/2020/se…
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Wrote about raising a boy, for @ObsNewReview... Cheers to @BabesaboutTown @ProfSonoraJha @DanusiaMD @drbobbiwegner @michreich for contributions... @ImogenCarter for the commish… And ma boy, who in 6-8yrs time will need to forgive me for the willies quote
theguardian.com/lifeandstyle…
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If you get 20 mins today, take a look at this story I wrote about police chases and what happens when they go wrong. Reporting on this changed a lot of my thinking
theguardian.com/news/2019/ju…
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Not for the first time, at the root of mass turmoil, a small man got laughed at and never forgot it
"You are not laughing now" The moment Nigel Farage has waited 17 years for. snpy.tv/29jHIUK
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I wrote about the unimprovable dad from Bluey, my hero, my nemesis theguardian.com/tv-and-radio…
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I wrote about the Salisbury spy poisoning for American GQ. Wash hands after reading
gq.com/story/russia-spy-pois…
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Spoke to One Direction for today's Guardian Weekend. Featuring body doubles, X Factor annuals and the phrase "po-po" theguardian.com/music/2014/n…
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“Deadpool, Deadpool, what’s the score?”
A year in the life of a Welsh team, a Welsh city, and two of the most unlikely football chairmen in memory…
My longread about Ryan Reynolds, Rob McElhenney and their first full season in charge at Wrexham AFC
gq.com/story/wrexham-fc-ryan…
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In 2014, I interviewed One Direction, as the 5-piece boyband began to run out of puff (a weirdly melancholy experience?)
theguardian.com/music/2014/n…
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Did an interview with an inspiring dude. Jeff Bridges at 72, twice knocked down by serious illness: abiding
theguardian.com/film/2022/se…
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Spent a month in a courtroom trying to get inside the heads of the participants in a BLM protest trial — from defendants and witnesses to prosecution QC and the judge… featuring @DavidOlusoga @Raj_Chada @LiamWalker_7 @wainwright_tom @CleoDanceBaton
newstatesman.com/long-reads/…
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Thanks to everyone who read the algorithm story today
post-credit stinger 👇
And if you’d like to know what happened next: Josiah did well in his first term @BartlettUCL (he was my student). Bloody well done to him and his stamina. “The student and the algorithm: how the exam results fiasco threatened one pupil’s future” theguardian.com/education/20…
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Phantom goals, time holes, Trumpy gaslighting, higher Biblical criticism... @guardianweekend let me go to town in a story about VAR and how it turned football inside out
theguardian.com/football/202…
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I did a lot of the work on this pre-outbreak — a story of hallucinations, flashbacks, heightened sensory powers, miles of black duct tape, and no Twitter. Meet the artist who hid away for a month in total darkness
1843magazine.com/features/in…
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Look out for my interview with Sir Ian McKellen in the Observer on Sunday. It was his 82nd birthday, day we met, and he was an absolute hoot. Also we had a deep and meaningful about death. Times.
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Few people have asked what happened next to DVA. As of last week, I understand an appeal is imminent. I’m hoping that @helenchapman94 at the brilliant @NewJournal, on this story from the start, will keep following and reporting
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Wrote about an oil rig that got lost at sea on her way to be scrapped; then crashed into Scotland. For @gdnlongread theguardian.com/business/201…
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... starring @Jellz_19 , a ridiculously impressive and tenacious young man who gave me a lot of his time so that I could tell this properly (credit to mum as well)
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The actor Jonathan Majors, who I spoke to for today’s @ObsMagazine, is a true original… if our conversation was a photograph it would be the one below
theguardian.com/culture/2023…
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An interview about grief in all its forms (from the shattering to the strange to the silly) with Rev Richard Coles, for today’s @ObsMagazine
theguardian.com/society/2021…
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For today's @guardianweekend I asked a lot of boys: what does it mean to be a man? Their answers were superfascinating
theguardian.com/lifeandstyle…
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Wrote about the NOW albums for today's @guardianweekend ... This one at least part-composed by my child self, chaining tape 2 side 1 of NOW 23 on an Alba and wondering about the lyrics to Ebeneezer Goode
theguardian.com/music/2018/j…
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Confessions of a Frozen dad, for today’s @guardianweekend
theguardian.com/film/2019/no…
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Ate poshly with Merc-nominee FKA Twigs for today's Observer theguardian.com/music/2014/n… Feat: leg braces, Lego and London horrorclub Tiger Tiger
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An encounter with The Weeknd for @guardianweekend (First time I've asked an interviewee if they "bloody love" drugs) theguardian.com/music/2016/d…
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Ian Fleming—who I wrote about in this @gdnlongread story—died on Tuesday after an illness. Younger writers ask, how do you know you've found a subject? If it's a person, they tend to brim with something (a vibe, a way of speaking, an outlook) that you wanna capture. Ian was that.
A year ago I saw a news item warning that half the UK’s fish and chip shops might close. I chose an area of excellence for the dish, the East Neuk of Fife, and hung around to see how they coped. It was a lot. Please read if you have time. Shop local. Tx
theguardian.com/food/2023/ju…
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Killer line by John Lahr on old playwrights: "Scratch a rebel and you'll find money from home" lrb.co.uk/v37/n03/john-lahr/… Apply to rock/pop now
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love Weekend, always have, and it soared under @melissadenes
Sad at the news. Lots of cool adventures thanks to the mag
One day I’ll show my kids the back issues and say, you used to be able to *hold* this stuff
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I’ve legit enjoyed maybe 0.1% of my conversations with Olympic athletes. This was one I enjoyed a lot. The diver Tom Daley, grizzled veteran of three Olympic Games, a married father-of-one... just 25 years old
theguardian.com/sport/2020/f…
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Almost missed birth of 1st son reporting the Hebridean parts of this story about Where Oil Rigs Go To Die. So plz rd theguardian.com/business/201…
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Chuffed to be shortlisted in features category at the British Journalism Awards, alongside two Guardian studs @shattenstone and @thedalstonyears …
cheers @pressgazette
Congratulations to @tomlamont who has been nominated for Feature Writer of the Year at the #britishjournalismawards!
Here's Tom's extraordinary piece from April on the wild world of vending machines theguardian.com/business/202…
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Last time she'll be on social media til she pesters for her own account. Cleo born Weds. Heroics by @sophieelmhirst.
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My wife spent so much time with the casting director Nina Gold, I started to wonder if she wasn't secretly auditioning to play a whitewalker or Camilla in the next Crown. The result is this long piece for the Guardian that made me cry with laughter: theguardian.com/news/2018/ap…
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Some personal news: proud to put my name to bespoke wallpaper
Had the most amazing fish and chips at the Lighthouse in Hastings facebook.com/britishfishandc… and they had @tomlamont's Guardian long read on the challenges facing chippies printed out and stuck to the wall theguardian.com/food/2023/ju… Made me fearful for friers, but proud of journalists
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Landlords, landsharks and Tayto's Crisps... Wrote a @gdnlongread about the fight for the future of British pubs theguardian.com/lifeandstyle…
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Got to go up on stage at a @SceptreBooks event last night and talk about writing fiction alongside some established and emerging legends of the game. My first rollercoaster. Sweated buckets. No memories except these photos.
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Is this allowed? Critic dislikes Mad Men: http://bit.ly/fbTpSG Interesting stuff on page two about all the creepily eloquent kids.
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Feasted on this twice. @stuartmcgurk’s fascinating, dark and laugh-out-loud funny deepdive on GB News: Year One… newstatesman.com/long-reads/…
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Best longread in ages: MI5's epically silly Eric Hobsbawm fixation, feat racist Orwell, tell-all Le Carre & tons more lrb.co.uk/v37/n07/frances-st…
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Well proud of @daveyjenkins for getting to 100 issues. We met 30 years ago… wish I’d known (back when this bowlcutted kid with an eggy school tie asked if I’d ever heard of The Simpsons) that he’d one day be a living legend of print, a creator-curator-protector of beautiful mags
Announcing #LWLies100! 🥳
18 years, 93 cover films, 6 themed issues and the work of countless incredible writers and illustrators have led to this: a unique celebration of print, design, journalism and, of course, filmmaking…
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Wrote about the Peaky Blinders Festival (inaugural) which against the odds took place in Birmingham last week
Why, exactly, does a festival exist based on a @BBC series about flat-capped gangsters from the Twenties? We sent @tomlamont to Birmingham to find out gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/ar…
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Sat down with Claire Foy to discuss *the* great question of modern parenting: Elsa or Anna? (also The Crown, face-y acting, anxiety, beheadings)
theguardian.com/culture/2018…
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Profiled a returning Lorde for @guardianweekend... Wooosh she's clever. Knife-sharp. Appropriate swordy pics amp.theguardian.com/music/20…
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Spoke to Adele for today's Observer theguardian.com/music/2015/n… Feat: bitten nails, pump-&-dumps at Oscars, as much profanity as a 3pm kickoff
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A first, early review of my novel in the Bookseller. Thanks to @MadeleineFeeny for taking the time to read it and precis it so deftly. This is my new elevator pitch
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Took a memorable walk with Matt Smith, on the eve of the launch of his new Game of Thrones show
We discussed turning 40, making (and sticking to) decisions, and our dads. Spoiler alert: shock hug
esquire.com/uk/culture/tv/a4…
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“It has the feel of fiction – all the better to convey the thoughts, fears and coping strategies of the pair as they fight for survival”
Spot-on review of Sophie’s book (today’s Guardian Book of the Day) by @FionaSturges
Maurice and Maralyn by Sophie Elmhirst review – all at sea theguardian.com/books/2024/f…
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credit to @ClareLongrigg and @davidedgarwolf for the commission and the edit and @Yohannk too… amazing pics as always by Murdo McCloud
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Blood, fumes and unicorn milkshakes... I inhaled this @stuartmcgurk longread on the emerging Vape Wars like a nectarine donut flavoured e-cigar... So many great micro details + a few chillier things to ponder as well
ft.com/content/f72f17e4-a83d…
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Could read this tweet forever
Today's @EveningStandard take on the Labour Manifesto - and the first look at the new M&S collection
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Congratulations to @sophieelmhirst from @gdnlongread for winning Finance & Economics Story of the Year for her story ‘Tampon Wars: The Battle To Overthrow The Tampax Empire’. #FPAAwards20 #awards #journalism piped.video/watch?v=acl7tGlv…
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@petepaphides There's still a small bunch of holdouts in the Pacific region I'm told. Cheers Pete, means a lot
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I wrote about the trial of the Bristol statue-topplers, for this week’s @NewStatesman… free to read online today
newstatesman.com/long-reads/…
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props to @abigailradnor for the idea and @ruthlewy for the edit
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If you follow me on here because I once interviewed Harry Styles, what can I say, my debut novel is 300 pages of PURE HARRY preorder now now now (it’s not)
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Megapregnant wife delivered her 1st piece for newyorker.com this week newyorker.com/culture/person… V proud to see her name in that font
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I’ve never been quoted on a poster before, but why not
The full story of Wrexham, Wryan, Wrob and their year of glorious footballing chaos is told here, for @GQMagazine:
gq.com/story/wrexham-fc-ryan…
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5am writing binges, old basketball wounds, and the melancholy in packing a suitcase… An interview with the novelist @CalebANelson for today’s Observer New Review
theguardian.com/books/2023/a…
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It’s week 7, I’ve watched everything, read everything, had every conversation... There was nothing for it but to go on the @LWLies podcast and talk about the day me and @daveyjenkins went to the premiere of The Flintstones: Viva Rock Vegas in June 2000
lwlies.com/podcast
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Played pro bono therapist for Naomi Watts, in today's @guardianweekend theguardian.com/film/2017/ju…
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In 2017, I interviewed Louis Tomlinson, who always felt like “the one at the back wearing espadrilles” (weirdly uplifting?)
theguardian.com/global/2017/…
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Crippled my morning trying to imagine some plausible dialogue in which two people "speak fondly" about the old colour of their passport
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If you're relishing the Daily Mail's delicious failure to sway as much as I am, squeeze on a lil lemon with this lrb.co.uk/v39/n11/andrew-oha…
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