Christina Patterson
Christina Patterson joined The Independent in 2003 as deputy literary editor and is now a full-time writer and columnist. A former director of the Poetry Society, and literary programmer at the Southbank Centre, she writes on culture, politics, books, travel and the arts and does the weekly "big interview" for the Arts & Books section. Interviewees have included Martin Amis, Alastair Campbell, Werner Herzog, David Starkey and Bryn Terfel.
Christina Patterson: Why negative thinking makes the world better
Who started the Iraq war? A man who picked out a rug to reflect his 'optimism'
Recently by Christina Patterson
Christina Patterson: My boss is discriminating against me
Thursday, 5 November 2009
Newspaper offices waste quite a lot of paper. So, in fact, do newspapers, as yesterday's splendid pine tree becomes (depending on your point of view) today's finely crafted chronicle of our times, or semi-literate showbiz goss, and tomorrow's guinea-pig toilet.
Christina Patterson: Why we can't resist a little dice with death
Saturday, 31 October 2009
They need a ‘gap year’ because they’ve barely been allowed past their front door
Why politics isn't just a game for the boys
Saturday, 24 October 2009
Christina Patterson: We’ve seen what happens when a gung-ho, risk-ridden male culture prevails.
Christina Patterson: If you want to be adored, just shut up
Thursday, 22 October 2009
So, poor old Hollywood's got its knickers in a twist about Twitter. The biggest, slickest marketing machine in the world can't keep its hands off a medium that's all about youth, and being plugged in, and being hip, that's also, like, instant, and, more importantly, free, which is totally cool, but there's just one little problem. The stars.
Christina Patterson: Art, money and a marriage made in hell
Saturday, 17 October 2009
The market has survived. The Kapoors and the Quinns are flying out the door
Christina Patterson: Energy, drive, decisiveness – and knowledge of libel laws
Thursday, 15 October 2009
"The culture of our company has been built around the qualities of the markets in which we work. We encourage our people to be energetic; driven and decisive and pursuing opportunity; respectful both of the significance of what we do and of the individual needs and qualities of our customers and suppliers."
Christina Patterson: The night a thief stole more than just a handbag
Saturday, 10 October 2009
I’ve pressed more numbers, in more ‘menus’, than a code breaker at Bletchley
Christina Patterson: Let's preserve the dotty, dying don
Thursday, 8 October 2009
If I were rewriting Dante's Inferno, I'd ensure that the catalogue of punishments included a PhD. Perhaps for the bankers – the men in Armani, seeking instant fortunes from hot air – a seven-year sentence, in corduroys, in libraries, on semi-colons in Finnegans Wake. There'd be no Starbucks. No Blackberries. No shrieking or baying or bragging. Nothing except piles and piles of lit-crit, time stretching out to an invisible, distant horizon, and silence.
Christina Patterson: I've reached a tipping point with tipping
Thursday, 1 October 2009
It starts the minute you arrive at your hotel. The suitcase that you dragged for miles to the bus stop, and then up and down the stairs on the Tube, and then down endless corridors and broken travelators at the airport, and then to the information desk at the other end, and to the bus stop, or the train, or perhaps the taxi, is, the minute you arrive in reception, whisked away from you by a man in a uniform, who carries it (but it's got wheels!) to the lift and then a few yards to your room. He opens the door, waves at the room as if he had, like God, just that minute conjured it from the air, and pauses.
Christina Patterson: Let's ditch this gold-diggers' free-for-all
Thursday, 17 September 2009
I've always felt a bit sorry for Mrs Bennet. It was all very well for Mr Bennet to cast his eyes to heaven, and sigh and sneer over her fluttering, and her whittering, and her desperate, all-consuming, excruciating desire to get her daughters married off. But what was she meant to do? She had five daughters and no money. Their market value was waning by the day. And he wasn't offering any helpful solutions.
Columnist Comments
• Howard Jacobson: Call it snobbery if you like
The rush to rescue Jordan's false breasts from Amis's teeth is more than gallantry
• Christina Patterson: Negative thinking for a better world
The man who started the Iraq war chose a rug to reflect his 'optimism'
• Andrew Grice: Cameron's great expectations
Tory leader said he would not let matters rest if Lisbon Treaty became law
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1 Mary Wakefield: Sex education classes are the last thing young children need
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7 Robert Fisk's World: The German Lawrence of Arabia had much to live up to – and failed
8 Robert Salaam: One man’s actions will affect loyal US Muslims
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10 Robert Fisk: America is performing its familiar role of propping up a dictator
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