Contributors
Sam Knight
@samknightwritesSam Knight is a staff writer at The New Yorker based in London. He has profiled the British politicians Theresa May, Jeremy Corbyn, and Sadiq Khan for the magazine, and has written about dressage, art fraud, and reality television gone wrong. His story “Follow the White Ball,” a profile of the snooker player Ronnie O’Sullivan, was anthologized in the 2016 edition of “The Best American Sports Writing.” He writes a fortnightly column for newyorker.com, Letter from the U.K. Previously, Knight was a contributing writer for the Guardian’s The Long Read, and his work has appeared in the Financial Times, Grantland, and Harper’s.
All Work
- Letter from the U.K.
Swifts and the Fantasy of Escape
During the coronavirus pandemic, birds are doing the travel that we can’t.
July 26, 2020
- Letter from the U.K.
The Lancet Editor’s Wild Ride Through the Coronavirus Pandemic
How Richard Horton balances science and politics.
June 27, 2020
- Daily Comment
The Comforting and Misleading Political Response to Britain’s Coronavirus Disaster
There has been a curious mixture of superiority and fatalism about Britain’s handling of the pandemic, which has been slow and calamitous.
May 5, 2020
- Letter from the U.K.
Boris Johnson’s Shocking Coronavirus Decline
If, as seems likely, the British leader requires more invasive or long-term treatment, there will be pressure to formally appoint an acting Prime Minister to serve in his place.
April 7, 2020
- Letter from the U.K.
What Do the Names of British Houses Mean?
The British have a long tradition of naming dwellings, and there have been periods when these names have acquired an astonishing expressiveness.
March 28, 2020
- Letter from the U.K.
Boris Johnson May Be a Victim of His Slow Response to the Coronavirus
On Friday morning, the Prime Minister announced that he had tested positive for COVID-19.
March 27, 2020
- Letter from the U.K.
Reading About the Black Death with My Daughter During the Coronavirus Outbreak
A child’s fascination with the fourteenth-century scourge takes a sobering tone as Britain scrambles to stave off a new catastrophe.
March 14, 2020
- Letter from the U.K.
Watching Liverpool’s Awesome, Fretful Return to the Top of English Soccer
At some point in the coming weeks, the club will return to the summit of English football for the first time in thirty years.
February 26, 2020
- Letter from the U.K.
If Shamima Begum, the ISIS Bride, Is No Longer British, What Does Citizenship Mean?
European governments have used a hodgepodge of methods to deal with citizens who went to fight for the Islamic State or live in the doomed caliphate.
February 15, 2020
- Annals of Nature
Can Farming Make Space for Nature?
After Brexit, the obsessions of Jake Fiennes could change how Britain uses its land.
February 10, 2020
