Welcome to The Metropolitan, a weekly newsletter about the pop-cultural and social experience of British Generation X.

We’ll be covering movies, books, films, TV programmes, music, advertising and marketing, social trends, and other cultural phenomena that we find brilliant, interesting or resonant. This could mean Life On Mars or Angela Carter, Jaws or Jack Reacher, Kaye Webb’s reign at Puffin Books or the way that men’s friendships play out in the presenting teams on popular podcasts.

We aim to write honestly and thoughtfully about how our generation’s cultural viewpoint was formed, and how we interact with culture to this day. This means we’re writing with an explicit focus on the viewpoints of British people aged around 45-65, but if we do it right we hope many other people will find it interesting too.

Pieces we’ve written so far include:

The Metropolitan

Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette

Some time ago I asked Metropolitan contributor and art academic Annette whether she could write something about the production design of recent historical dramas. I’d noticed I was seeing pastels and Prussian blue everywhere, and that the stylish stranglehold of minimalism had been thrown off in favour of a riot of clashing patterns and textures. And th…

Read more

2 years ago · 16 likes · 10 comments · Rowan Davies

The Metropolitan

Folklore, Myths and Legends of Britain

We were raised by Puffins. With three TV channels and no internet, for long stretches of our lives reading was the best (and sometimes, the only) way to pass the time. In X Libris we return to the books that made us. Folklore, Myths and Legends of Britain (Reader’s Digest, 1973…

Read more

3 years ago · 8 likes · 2 comments · Tobias Sturt

The Metropolitan

Beck and the 1990s Angel Dust Bowl

‘Butane – veins – junkie – kill – flaming – insane – shotgun – violation – maggot – Mace – burning – kill – double-barrel – buckshot – kill – evil – nightmare – gas chamber – weasel – cocaine – hung himself – hanging – hate – choking – kill – crazy – kill – drive-by – pierce – kill – kill – kill – kill…

Read more

3 years ago · 7 likes · Chris Waywell

We won’t be providing instant reviews and hot takes, because the internet is full of them. We won’t be doing hit jobs either; it’s harder, and more interesting, to put your finger on why something works.

As Tracey Thorn sang in Oxford Street, we ‘grew up in a little world’ that flared and guttered between Playschool and Facebook, and would be unrecognisable to those younger than us. That little world influences us to this day. The Metropolitan is our swing at analysing pop culture and social trends from this specific viewpoint. We’d love you to come along with us.

Weekly emails

Every week we publish a short essay (about ten minutes of reading). It might be art, it might be children’s TV, it might be lost and haunted shipwrecks at the bottom of the Great Lakes.

Sign up!

Subscribe to get weekly issues direct to your mail box or browse our archives for past issues.

One essay a month will be paywalled with only a preview for free subscribers. All paid accounts will be able to read the paywalled essay.

We will also be producing a monthly podcast of readings of essays from the archive relevant to that month’s pieces.

To find out more about the company that provides the tech for this newsletter, visit Substack.com.