Tortoise Quarterly: Edition 1

Journeys

Tortoises may be slow moving but we have no fear of any journey, long or short, difficult or easy, pleasurable or painful. And we always get there in the end. This is another journey for us, our first official Short Book of Long Reads. Within these covers you’ll find journeys fantastical and formidable, funny and frightening; journeys of discovery and self-discovery, of love and heartbreak.

Contributors include Simon Barnes, Matthew d’Ancona, Catherine Nixey, Lydia Hislop and Simon Esterson.

Defeated by Brexit

Chris Cook

Britain has been humiliated. In 2016, the country decided to leave the European Union, but three years later the nation’s future is unresolved. This is the inside story of how and why the UK failed in its efforts to negotiate an exit deal with the EU.

Chris Cook is a partner and editor at Tortoise. He was previously public policy editor at BBC Newsnight, where he won three Royal Television Society awards for his journalism – including for an exposé of Kids Company and for Newsnight’s coverage of the Grenfell Tower fire. In 2019, he was named Specialist Journalist of the Year by the RTS for his work on harassment and bullying by members of parliament. He previously worked as executive comment editor, leader writer and education correspondent at the Financial Times.

“Read this book, howl with rage and shake your head from time to time in sheer disbelief.” Chris Patten

“This mind-blowing book is a spiffing tale of a state spaffing away its culture of competence.” Fintan O’Toole, Irish Times

Grandeur and greed

The great galleries of Europe reviewed

Giles Smith

Many would say that the Louvre is the greatest art gallery in the world – but is it? Dominated by one immensely famous work, it can seem soulless and commercial. So we decided to review the museum, not just its contents, and then compare it with the experiences offered by some of the great galleries of Europe: the Uffizi in Florence, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Prado in Madrid, and the National Gallery in London. Giles Smith took on this arduous task.

Giles Smith was a key member of the Eighties pop band The Cleaners from Venus, and is the author of one of the best books ever written about pop, Lost in Music.