Hannah Williams
@hkatewilliams
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Editor @_TheLondoner: [email protected] Freelance arts/culture writing in New Yorker, FT, New Statesman, Granta, Atlantic etc etc
Joined March 2017
Making my @NewYorker debut today writing about Elaine Kraf, who wrote one of the best novels of the 70s – the frenetic, astonishing should-be-classic The Princess of 72nd Street – and then vanished completely from view.
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The funniest thing about the worship of Nara Smith and her Mormon lifestyle propaganda is that she quite clearly cannot cook at all.
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Lana dating a random older guy who runs airboat tours in Louisiana. we're so unbelievably back. .
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Brat is quite explicitly about being an early 30s party girl… media literacy is dead and TikTok’s obsessive fetishisation of youth killed it.
to have been 19 for melodrama and 25 for brat. jesus fucking christ.
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Wrote about growing very tired of Taylor Swift’s brand of ruthless capitalism packaged up as moral righteousness and the uncritical media reception of it/her for the @NewStatesman.
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This tweet is better than my entire article
Wrote about growing very tired of Taylor Swift’s brand of ruthless capitalism packaged up as moral righteousness and the uncritical media reception of it/her for the @NewStatesman.
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You absolutely do not need to use SPF 50 on your face in the middle of December in the UK, and the only reason people think you do is because mentally ill dermatologists on tiktok have convinced them that natural ageing is an unforgivable sin.
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The fact that they promised to improve Euston only to reveal that all this actually consisted of was replacing the platform signage with a colossal advertising screen – somehow making the worst station in London even worse – feels quite indicative of the current state of the UK.
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Very boring for somebody in the NY lit scene to interview their friend about their debut book and write about how they're the voice of their generation, yet again, because they write in updated-alt-lit-internet-speak .
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The self-righteousness of the judge here is grotesque, laughable… a two year sentence for throwing soup at a pane of glass
Just Stop Oil activists jailed for throwing soup over Van Gogh’s Sunflowers
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Truly don't understand people who live in London but don't like central. I don't pay extortionate rents just to wander up Lordship Lane, I pay them to go and get accidentally drunk on port in Gordon's after work and then become emotional at the lights reflected on the Thames!.
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This 'cutesy' 'demure' shit suddenly being everywhere demonstrates how the dominant form of humour is now purely mimetic, any vestige of originality or funniness stripped away - replaced by regurgitating tiktok trends to signify you're part of the in-crowd.
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This is the real and true 'Lana aesthetic'. angelic coquettecore girlies found rotting!.
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People love to be like "gorgeous writing" and the writing is very bad.
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Need this to be the response to any Instagram London/NYC area meme account, starterpack, 'moodboard', TikTok 'trend forecast'
why has 'indie sleaze' been 'back' 18 times in the past 3 years? will anything new ever happen again? with brat summer behind us, I try to answer these, & other such pressing questions of our time.
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This would seem slightly more profound if pretty much every great writer in history hadn’t been a hater
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Talking endlessly about going to Cambridge but shaking my head the entire time so that people know I didn’t agree with it
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Next to no late night drinking spots in London because of complaints like 'faint giggles'. we're cooked!!
EXCL: We mapped every pub almost shut or that had its hours limited after neighbours complained to the council about noise. Often the complaints were as small as "faint giggles" or hypothetical "honking" from traffic. Dozens of London pubs were affected in the last year alone.
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Something is happening.
Wrote about growing very tired of Taylor Swift’s brand of ruthless capitalism packaged up as moral righteousness and the uncritical media reception of it/her for the @NewStatesman.
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“The pair of you came within the thickness of a pane of glass of irreparably damaging or even destroying this priceless treasure” in much the same way we all come within the thickness of a pane of glass from falling out of the window each day.
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Why is Adobe – a corporation obsessed with proprietary software and preventing people from using even basic versions of their products for free (tried editing a pdf recently?) – now seemingly single-mindedly focused on helping its users steal the work of others?.
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So sick of this idea being repeated everywhere. There are new apartments going up constantly in London and none of them are affordable. The free market is not going to save us. Private developers are not going to take any measure that delivers them less profit.
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Really funny that whenever extremely beautiful and famous celebrities put on a pair of glasses academics on twitter are like ‘they are exactly like me :)’.
That one theoretical biologist at the conference doing modeling shit no one understands
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To all the people in the QTs who are upset that she’s ‘writing about ennui’… you’re not going to be happy when you finally learn how to read, let me tell you!.
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Eternally clocking on to my shift as the Central London romantic
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Wrote about Lana’s evolution from pop star to Whitman-esque poet laureate of America for the @NewStatesman.
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Spoke to women who love 'bad white man' books – your Roths/Salingers/Hemingways/DeLillos/Franzens – and wrote about how the trope does a disservice to both literature and female readers in its denial of art, empathy and understanding for @WeAreMel.
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Art? It’s when people are happy all the time! :)
wow that’s crazy has the author ever thought about letting joy into their life.
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Bizarre that not once in this entire Guardian article on the university funding crisis does it mention that the main reason unis are failing is the removal of all pretty much all govt funding under 2010s austerity – instead it recommends raising tuitions fees yet again
Golden age of English universities could be over, says head of watchdog
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It is both urgent and vital that the European Union enacts a ban on Americans entering the countries in its membership.
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Unsure what this has to do with the protestors currently being arrested, tear-gassed and beaten by police
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Find that US outlets never really do a satisfactory job when publishing pieces on the British state/its institutions. While distance (and a perspective outside of nuts U.K. media) is absolutely needed, there’s some kind of nuance that the editorial teams don’t seem to fully grasp.
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I couldn’t have written a load of my articles or pretty much any of my MPhil without the Internet Archive. Out of print books (particularly experimental 70s women’s writing), little-known magazines from half a century ago – a wealth of information now impossible to access.
BREAKING: The Internet Archive has lost its appeal in Hachette v. Internet Archive, the long-running, closely watched copyright case over the scanning and lending of print library books. Full story to follow.
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For my @GrantaMag debut I wrote on: the woman as monster, harpies, the Malleus Maleficarum, Lorena Bobbit, Lilith, Freud, WITCH by @RebTamas, Leviticus, @JuliaArmfield's salt slow, #MeToo, Barbara Creed, predation, dreams of strength. I hope you enjoy it:
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Unutterably grotesque excuse for ‘journalism’ to do this in the first place, but truly impressive how Scarlet somehow manages to sink even lower into the gutter with this truly embarrassing, shameless display of self-congratulation.
Roger Hallam and four others received record sentences after The Sun's investigation. The Judge today said: "I know that none of you think much of the Sun newspaper. However she and her newspaper did entirely the right thing by passing [the recording] on to the police".
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As good of a time to announce it as any - I'm now the editor of The Londoner!
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They were working on these ‘improvements’ for about half a decade lol
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Cat's outta the bag 😘.
🚨 Very excited that the superstar @hkatewilliams is joining @millmediauk to write for our London publication, which launches on Monday morning! Hannah will write about culture in the capital, as well as doing interviews, profiles and other great things.
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Seems strange that in all discussions of that NYer Fitzcarraldo piece nobody has spoken about how, in the current climate of UK arts funding austerity, seemingly the only way somebody can run a publishing house committed to art above profit is to have great personal wealth
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A really deeply conservative take that I keep seeing parroted in 'progressive' 'leftist' circles lol
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I am currently (very briefly) acting as an editor on the FT's House & Home section while a colleague is away. You have about four weeks to pitch me ideas you think might work for it! Looking for interesting stories heavy on narrative (who isn't?). hannah.williams@ft.com.
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Wrote a newsletter about not wanting kids, 'vibe shifts' and the weird, regressive way I keep hearing people talk about motherhood at the moment. Link in replies!
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Sorry but this is nothing more than 'foreigners are taking our homes' nonsense repackaged with a progressive veneer! Rampant gentrification as a result of the greed of developers and landlords and governments is not the fault of people moving to London from Leeds or whatever
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Need Vinted to allow you to exclude brands. never want to see another Shein dress in my life!!.
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Why is Rome entirely populated by American people now? Why are they seemingly all from the Midwest? Why do they refuse to even say ‘ciao’ or ‘grazie’ when speaking to the five Italian people left in the city (all waiters)?.
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Turns out all of those headlines about the ultra-wealthy fleeing London bc of new non-dom rules come from a single source: a report commissioned by a firm selling golden passports that primarily uses data from. LinkedIn.
The news has been full of headlines about millionaires fleeing London. But is it true?. This is the story of how a controversial wealth advisor and a one-man research firm that studies exotic birds convinced national newspapers of a wealth exodus.
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Growing very tired of music reviewers just parroting tired social media takes in their reviews. Despite the twitter discourse, nothing on Camilla’s album sounds nothing like any song Charli has ever made – it’s way more akin to Twigs’ Caprisongs if anything (due to El Guincho)
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@eliseybell Can't stop thinking about the staggering, incredible bravery of her decision to waive anonymity/speak publicly about the case.
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In my final piece of the year for @_TheLondoner, I traced the history of London’s lights, from link boys to gas lamps to 24/7 illumination, to find out what happens to a city’s atmosphere – and its sense of self – in an age of uniform blue-white LEDs.
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I remember when I first heard about Peter Thiel funding NYC podcasts and various social media figures in a bid to bring about his ‘vibe shift’ and thinking that it was a laughable waste of money. Never been more wrong!.
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Find this kneejerk 'everything about social media's influence is good and you're a Boomer Luddite if you disagree' response to be deeply unedifying, especially from an investigative journalist
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My main issue with this entire era/project is that it feels very much like latching onto trends that were already ascendent, rather than creating her own/being ahead of them, as she usually is. But I suppose that's how you achieve mainstream success!.
charli had cobrasnake at her birthday party indie sleaze is back in full force omg
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At this point I am quite convinced that The Years is staging some of its fainters btw. DM me if you have any insider info.
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We're live! Come meet me @_TheLondoner and read a little about what I want to do there, why I think the magazine is so important for London, and why I hated the London Eye as a child:
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Funny how the U.K. used to have actual public intellectuals like Stuart Hall but now instead we get low-rent masturbatory idiots like Baddiel who’ve appointed themselves to the role of ‘contemporary thinker’ to try and prevent people from bringing up their penchant for blackface.
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🚨Important public service journalism🚨. I wrote about the oldest pubs in London for @_TheLondoner, and found that most of them. aren't really that old at all (and it's why we love them!). All your favs get a mention: The Mayflower, the Prospect of Whitby, Ye Olde Mitre etc.
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Estate agent and landlord bullying me and my flatmate for having some oil and vinegar bottles on the worksurfaces during one of her quarterly flat inspections
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Last year my estate agent (Truepenny’s in East Dulwich) tried to force me to pay admin fees – when I said that they were no longer legal, they claimed I was ignorant and wrong, only backing down when I screenshotted the relevant statute. Does anybody know how to report this?.
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I wrote about Claudia Weill's 1978 masterpiece Girlfriends and its approach to female friendship, 70s New York, feminism and being an artist.
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Nearly two years since I wrote about Elaine Kraf and her genius novel, The Princess of 72nd Street – and today I received a proof of the @ModernLibrary reissue in the post. Really means a lot to me that she’s finally getting the recognition she’s long deserved. 💕
Making my @NewYorker debut today writing about Elaine Kraf, who wrote one of the best novels of the 70s – the frenetic, astonishing should-be-classic The Princess of 72nd Street – and then vanished completely from view.
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Funny to try and litigate your grievances in this way but a.) publishers have always been staffed by these women/their male counterparts and b.) it's clearly phones that are the reason.
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At the point of hating the internet where I’m tempted to write a newsletter that I photocopy and physically post to people who subscribe.
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They were playing football. Palestinian children are not allowed to have even one moment of normality, one moment of joy.
⚡️BREAKING. THIS IS THE FOOTAGE OF THE MOMENT THE ZIONIST ENTITY COMMITTED THE MASSACRE AT AL-AWDA SCHOOL TODAY.
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Incredible detail from @MoyaCrockett's dispatch on the buzzy, stylish new singles nights popping up in London – and why men aren't going to them.
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Is anybody going to fact-check his claims that he was somehow kidnapped every other day and miraculously managed each time to charm his captors into recognising he’s a proper legend and supporting him on his quest or nah?.
Endurance athlete Russ Cook will publish his memoir, Hardest Geezer, the first title in Steven Bartlett’s new imprint with @EburyPublishing, Flight Books 👇
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Looking to commission great, insightful and in-depth London-based character profiles and scene reports for The Londoner. Good rates!.
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The ur-text character actor… Van Eyck face, vaguely sinister gay air… sublime!
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My absurdly talented boyfriend edited/animated/co-wrote this show, airing on Channel 4 at 10pm tonight + available on demand after that. It's a truly brilliant piece of work – brave and funny and intelligent – and you should watch it!!.
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Anybody not reading ‘gooners’ and thinking of Arsenal has Yank internet brain, I’m afraid….
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Need this nineteenth century amateur oil painting of a prize pig more than I’ve ever needed anything in my life thus far
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I wrote about The Yellow Bittern and the London restaurant scene's obsession with the past for @_TheLondoner:
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And, of course, the media's obsessive and deeply depressing trend piece economy. It's a closed loop, baby!.
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Reviewed this yonks and yonks ago for the Guardian, it's so so so good
i just learned that one of my fav books we’ve ever published, Farewell Ghosts by Nadia Terranova, tr. Ann Goldstein, has only sold 900 copies in its entire life, so i’ve set up a 40% off discount that will run until we get that number up to 1,000 .
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My first piece for @_TheLondoner is on the past, present and future of one of London's most hated thoroughfares: Oxford Street. Come for the pedestrianisation debate, stay for the Tyburn Tree chat!.
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'indie sleaze' '2014'. it is imperative that we open the schools
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A lot of people on twitter talk about Sally Rooney like Swifties talk about Taylor Swift.
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I wrote about being afraid to write, ft. Joe Gould and Joseph Mitchell. Link in reply.
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Have a theory that Anna K's filler genuinely migrated into her brain. perfectly tracks onto the timeline of when she started going insane.
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Glaringly obvious that social media and the actors behind it are leading us on a ceaseless rightward march. Friends who are teachers in London have told me of the resurgence and complete normalisation of extreme misogyny amongst their students.
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Obsessed with @jamesdgreig's dispatch for @_TheLondoner into the many new literary reading series popping up in London - Soho Reading Series, Deleted Scenes et al
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One of the very last dreams of the internet as a source for real knowledge lost due to unchecked corporate greed.
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Couldn’t go to the Granta launch bc I got hit by a car while on one of my beloved Lime bikes… quite a glam reason imo.
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Reupping this piece I wrote just before the new year – about lights, but more about the changing atmosphere of London and who it's for and what it is – as it's a topic I'm fascinated by and wanted to write on for ages.
In my final piece of the year for @_TheLondoner, I traced the history of London’s lights, from link boys to gas lamps to 24/7 illumination, to find out what happens to a city’s atmosphere – and its sense of self – in an age of uniform blue-white LEDs.
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Me: 2,000 or so words about why I’m pretty sure I don’t want to have kids .Hank:
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The loss of the Sekforde would genuinely be a national tragedy - but seems increasingly like an inevitability. @PubsSaving
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Incredible work from the judge in the Metro's vs Morley's case: can you differentiate between chicken shop brands when drunk??
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I’m not exaggerating – even the copyright library I used couldn’t get me half of the resources I ended up using (either prohibitively expensive, v slow or just plain impossible to get hold of). The IA was literally the only way I could access them.
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