Where did the year go? It’s a regular New Year mystery but this year I at least have an answer. I’ve never been a diary keeper but during 2025 I jotted down everything of note that happened, big or small, in a little red diary, so that when I reviewed the year there wouldn’t be a vast void where my memories should have been.
However, much as I think such reflective exercises are worthwhile, I also believe in letting the past go and looking to the future. So I also intended to initiate a new annual ritual, in which said diary will be burned. After all, the alternative is that it sits in a box until I die.
With the aid of that little red book, I have compiled a list of 25 highlight of 2025 – and one coming in 2026.
Six Books
1. Memory Lane by Ciara Greene and Gillian Murphy
You’ve probably read a lot over the years about how inaccurate our memories are and how they can’t be trusted. Memory Lane doesn’t just pull all that evidence together, it also shows why we should not be alarmed by it. The subtitle, The Perfectly Imperfect Ways We Remember, sums up the authors’ view that our apparent failings are brilliant features of our brains rather than pesky bugs. The book is a masterclass in clear, concise, no-frills non-fiction writing, for readers whose main goal is to learn as easily and enjoyably as possible. I reviewed the book for the Wall Street Journal.
2. Food Fight by Stuart Gillespie
In Food Fight, Stuart Gillespie—who has worked for more than forty years in the field of food, nutrition and health for UN agencies, NGOs and the International Food Policy Research Institute—marshals his skills as both a researcher and campaigner to deliver a punchy polemic backed up with hard, often astonishing, data. In my review I wrote, “Although the polemical force of the book sometimes comes at the cost of nuance, caveats and qualifiers, his overall analysis is spot on. ‘To truly overhaul the food system, we need to see a major shift in the structure and dynamics of power.’” (Supporters can access the review on my website.)
3. Kant: A Revolution in Thinking by Marcus Willaschek (Translated by Peter Lewis)
“Nothing could make Kant crystal clear, but Mr Willaschek’s disperses the fog as much as is humanly possible,” I wrote in my Wall Street Journal review, which Supporters can read on my website. As with the other books, you can buy it from my website, supporting me and independent bookshops.
4. The Age of Diagnosis by Suzanne O’Sullivan
You might fear (or hope) that a book about overdiagnosis will be a shrill screed about how people need to stop whingeing about their non-existent mental and physical health issues and get on with life. Suzanne O’Sullivan’s book is much more nuanced than that. For her, overdiagnosis is any diagnosis that is not helpful, even though usually there is some real problem that it points to. She also has a lot to say about testing and screening that may make you think twice the next time you’re thinking of demanding a test from your doctor.
5. Ludwig Wittgenstein: Philosophy in the Age of Airplanes by Anthony Gottlieb
“Any life of Wittgenstein falls in the shadow of Ray Monk’s “Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius” (1990), one of the best biographies of any intellectual ever written. Rather than compete, Mr. Gottlieb offers a very different kind of book, one that doesn’t aim to be comprehensive but instead focuses on what is most essential and interesting in the philosopher’s work and life. Formerly the executive editor of the Economist, Mr. Gottlieb comes well-equipped for the task. There is no flab in his prose. It is rare to find a book that you can open at random and almost always find something that piques your interest.” From my Wall Street Journal review.
6. Off-White: The Truth About Antisemitism by Rachel Shabi
Shabi’s book takes on one of the most polarising issues in the world today and exposes the tragedy of anti-racism divided against itself. All these are true at once: the Palestinians have been treated diabolically, accusations of anti-semitism are often used to silence critics of Israel, and anti-semitism remains widespread, powerful and dismissed by many of the quickest to condemn any other kind of racism.
Five on Screen
You may not want to watch another dispiriting documentary about the Israel-Palestine conflict. But this one is definitely worth your time. Made by “a Palestinian-Israeli collective of four young activists”, like Off-White, its power does not come at the price of oversimplification or blind partisanship.
8. The Marching Band (En Fanfare)
In his Guardian review, Peter Bradshaw wrote “Two strong leads in Pierre Lottin and Benjamin Lavernhe make this heart-on-sleeve but unsentimental class drama a triumph in a minor key,” but he only gave it three stars! It deserves more. (95% on Rotten Tomatoes is more like it.)
An oldie I finally got round to watching only this year. The David Lynch film for people who don’t like David Lynch films, based on the true story of a septuagenarian retired farmer and widower who drives to Wisconsin from Iowa on an old lawnmower to visit his sick, estranged brother. Heart-warming without an ounce of sentimentality. (Strangely unavailable to stream, in the UK at least.)
10. The Ballad of Wallace Island
Continuing the theme of gentle warmth and humanity, this quirky comedy sees a former folk duo and ex-couple drawn back together by an eccentric lottery winner who books them to play a very intimate gig on his private Scottish island.
11. Call My Agent (Dix Pour Cent)
The first series aired a decade ago but this was my TV comedy discovery of the year, set in an actors agency. There’s a lot of fun with guest appearances by real actors. Give it a few episodes: all the main characters are dislikable and yet over time you end up rooting for them. (Avoid the English language remake of this French production, which was widely panned.)
Five Musical Highlights
12. Meybahar
Have you ever heard a band live, probably on holiday, loved them, bought their CD, only to be disappointed when you played it back home? When we saw Meybahar in Budapest pre-pandemic, the souvenir CD EP turned out to a real gem that has been played again and again. The band fuses Greek and Hungarian folk with energy, rhythm and melody. It took me ages to get their debut full-length CD sent from Hungary but it was worth it. If you are more modern and stream, it will be easier.
13. Mike Taylor
I was intrigued by an article I read about jazz pianist Mike Taylor, something of a cult figure from the late sixties who only made two albums before his early death. Those two albums are only available on expensive vinyl but a few years ago another album was released of a discovered and restored rehearsal tape. I find Preparation hard to describe. For me, it hits the sweet spot between accessible jazz that is melodic and swinging and the more esoteric, avant-garde stuff. In other words, both a crowd-pleaser and an aficionado-delighter.
14. Neil Cowley Trio
Cowley is a pianist who can go from stabbing chords to subtle runs, with music that can be deeply emotional as well as fun and playful. Bassist Rex Horan and drummer Evan Jenkins provide perfect foils. They delivered a great live show in Bristol, with plenty from their excellent new album, Entity.
15. Wolf Alice
I like to be down with the kids, which is why I was thrilled to dig a hot new beat combo called Wolf Alice. Admittedly, it did take me ten years after their first album in 2014 to discover them, but 2025 was the year I got all three albums to date and played them to death, despite Ellie Rowsell’s lyrics speaking of a modern young female experience that is as alien to me as Alpha Centauri. I excitedly pre-ordered their new album but for many reasons it took me four months to collect it and I still haven’t played it.
16. Hawkwind
I’ve probably seen Hawkwind more than any other band, with 84-year old founder Dave Brock leading the band after 56 years. And they are still releasing new albums worth listening to. Seeing them live at Chepstow Castle was pure joy.
Six of my Best
17. It’s about the right time to revisit my New Statesman article, The Problem with Veganuary. Conclusion: “Just as a dry January won’t undo 11 months of over-drinking, Veganuary will not fix our fundamental over-reliance on calories from animals. What we need is not a vegan month but a more plant-rich year.”
18. My FT article In Defence of Pessimism, written with my better half, Antonia Macaro, was so interesting to research. We hope it dispels a lot of received wisdom about the pros and cons of negative and positive thinking.
19. The headline Farming Across the Divide might not strike all of you as especially interesting, but this piece for Prospect is not just about the big split in the food world, it’s about the problems of polarisation, what causes it, and how to overcome it. It’s also part of work in progress for a book due to come out in 2027.
20. Has neuroscience shown us that we do not perceive reality? Many think this is obviously true, but in the essay Grasping Reality for the Francis Crick Institute, drawing on interviews with leading scientists, I argue it’s not as simple as that.
21. House sitting in south-west France a few years ago, I became aware of the fascinating history of the medieval Bastide towns. Returning this year, I wrote a piece about them for the FT, headlined Why England’s new towns should look to medieval France, about what they can teach us about building new towns today.
22. Supporters can also read online my chapter Comedy as Philosophy for The Philosophy of Comedy, edited by Simon Kirchin. In it, I argue that “comedy can do philosophy. It can use humour as a vehicle to explore and question fundamental aspects of human existence. It can offer unique insights, challenge conventional wisdom, and provoke introspection by blending entertainment with philosophical inquiry. Comedy can serve as a powerful medium for engaging with deep philosophical ideas in a relatable and engaging way.”
Three Bits and pieces
23. My latest book How the World Eats came out in paperback and has picked up two major award nominations. It was shortlisted for the Guild of Food Writers Food Book Award, losing out to Namesake: Reflections on a Warrior Woman by N.S. Nuseibeh; and has also been long-listed for the Andre Simon Food and Drink awards, with the shortlist announced late January. If you need more persuading that it’s worth a read, check out the reviews and endorsements here.
24. I’ve been to shamefully few exhibitions this year, but was glad to make the small and perfectly formed Wright of Derby: From the Shadows at the National Gallery, which runs until 10 May. I would like to say more about this in a future Microphilosophy newsletter.
25. I’ve been lucky to be a guest of some great live events, festivals and podcasts this year. You’ll find links to three recordings on the Sound and Vision page of my website.
And one for 2026
I’m delighted to announce a new book out in April. The Book of Coffee is a reimagining of The Book of Tea by Kakuza Okakura (1906) for the 21st century. It has been a passion project for some years that only came to fruition when I got a copy under the nose of coffee god James Hoffman, who liked it enough to write a foreword and afterword.
The blurb says “This little book on coffee is something ultimately enriching and life affirming, an elevation of the everyday and a pleasure to read— a treatise on how we can infuse the seemingly mundane with moments of mindful attention and meaning. It will appeal not only to coffee lovers but to anyone intrigued by the intersections of culture, philosophy, and everyday life.”