Laurie Taylor

In remembrance of Caspar Melville

A tribute to the late Caspar Melville – writer, musicologist, and former editor of New Humanist.

17 March 2025

The surprising benefits of praying for the dead

Atheism buries the dead too quickly

2 November 2023

Every year, I forget!

Why I have a complicated relationship with anniversaries

27 July 2023

That don’t impress me much

Jesus turned water into wine, but have you seen David Blaine's tricks?

4 April 2023

Holiday? No thanks

Why do so many holiday-makers develop a sudden interest in churches and religious parades?

9 December 2022

My final resting place

As an atheist, Laurie Taylor will not be joining the angels. But will a loophole grant him entrance to that mysterious place, Limbo?

31 October 2022

Forbidden liaisons

As a schoolboy, Laurie Taylor was warned that Protestant girls were "expert in the art of temptation".

25 July 2022

Eternal cleaning of the spotted soul

While his teachers preached purity, Freud gave the teenage Laurie Taylor a pleasingly different view.

6 April 2022

The art of the blag

Laurie Taylor's entry to Birkbeck University required the deployment of a key skill for getting by in life: the blag.

13 December 2021

Chronicles of decline

Rather than ignoring the ageing process, Laurie Taylor decides to develop a "Personal Deterioration Index".

30 September 2021

Remember me?

Calling up long-lost friends, especially during a pandemic, is a pastime with its perils for Laurie Taylor.

24 June 2021

Saints alive!

As a schoolboy, Laurie Taylor was enjoined to pray for a miracle. Unfortunately, his "success" was mired by discovering David Hume.

20 April 2021

Inside jokes

What does a dyslexic, agnostic, insomniac do at night? Laurie Taylor has been collecting jokes since he was seven years old. Now he's stuck in the house, they're all coming out.

1 December 2020

I’m a new man

"My body was gaining strength and vitality and, it has to be said, a certain beauty..."

7 September 2020

Lockdown in anger

In what mental and physical state will Laurie Taylor emerge from the confines of his home?

1 June 2020

The past in its place

In order to grow old gracefully, one must never let memories become the plat du jour.

7 May 2020

Not to be continued . . .

Laurie Taylor tries to free himself from wondering what comes next.

3 February 2020

You don’t know whether to laugh or cry

Laurie Taylor on the mystery of memory.

4 November 2019

Climate crisis: my part in its downfall

Laurie Taylor wonders if he has left his radical past behind.

29 July 2019

Have I been missing out on something?

When it comes to sex, Laurie Taylor is a child of his time.

7 May 2019

Over-the-hill professor seeks similar

Laurie Taylor considers the benefits of internet dating.

4 February 2019

What makes a good lecture?

As the value of the university lecture is debated, Laurie Taylor recalls his own student days.

5 November 2018

Why Pope Benedict is growing on me

Laurie Taylor on celebrity resemblances.

7 August 2018

Written any good books recently?

Laurie Taylor on the struggles of literary aspiration.

9 May 2018

Don’t take this the wrong way …

Laurie Taylor's trip to the doctor doesn't quite go as planned.

9 February 2018

The weighting game

Laurie Taylor takes a trip to the gym.

6 November 2017

Staying in is the new going out

Laurie Taylor embraces the joys of domestic quiescence.

7 August 2017

Desperately seeking cultural capital

Laurie Taylor goes to the opera.

8 May 2017

Keep on taking the tablets

Laurie Taylor goes in search of transcendence and finds some fascinating shoelaces.

6 February 2017

I’ve got that shrinking feeling

Laurie Taylor discovers he is losing height.

7 November 2016

Forgetting is fine – it’s perverse remembering that’s a problem

Laurie Taylor finds his brain is making not Freudian slips, but Freudian landslides.

10 August 2016

I’ll believe in God – but on on one condition

Laurie Taylor reminisces about the arguments he's had with true believers.

9 May 2016

Your couch or mine?

Laurie Taylor remembers a friend with a penchant for psychotherapy.

8 February 2016

How the advent of the mobile phone has ruined parties

Imaginatively amplified stories of comic disaster have given way to bland shots of people’s faces, says Laurie Taylor.

2 November 2015

It might be time to hang up my dancing shoes

After taking a tumble, Laurie Taylor discovers a critical new life point.

3 August 2015

My father and his amoral philosophy of medicine

Laurie Taylor remembers his father, whose atheism was a much a part of his person as his backbone.

7 May 2015

How to give the impression of being a fully paid-up don

Speaking at a seminar, Laurie Taylor struggles to recall his academic past.

5 February 2015

The complex relationship between late-night TV and inebriation

Laurie Taylor wonders if he is losing the plot.

10 November 2014

Stranded in the sea of compromise

That awkward moment when another atheist mistakes you for a believer.

21 July 2014

Silence is gruesome

6 May 2014

Somebody loves me… I wonder who?

Laurie Taylor receives an unsolicited email

18 December 2013

He’s sorry he hasn’t a clue

Laurie Taylor tries a bit of brain training

15 July 2013

Emotional labour pains

Laurie Taylor feels the un-spontaneous love

21 May 2013

Stone cold drunk

Laurie Taylor has a drinking problem

8 March 2013

Fringe benefits

In which Laurie Taylor visits an experimental theatre, and regrets it

18 January 2013

A conversation with Jonathan Miller: Laurie Taylor talks to the President of the Rationalist Association

Laurie Taylor gets up close and personal with Britain’s leading public intellectual

9 January 2013

Skin deep

Laurie Taylor springs a leak

15 November 2012

Swan Song

Laurie Taylor tries the ballet

10 October 2012

No nonsense: remembering Winston Fletcher

Laurie Taylor, Chair of the Rationalist Association, remembers his fellow trustee, who died on 4 September 2012

6 September 2012

Racing the Popemobile

Laurie Taylor beats the Pontiff

12 July 2012

Whine dining

Laurie Taylor has his very own euro crisis

21 May 2012

Artful dodger

Laurie Taylor flashes his inner muse

19 March 2012

What’s wrong with university? Laurie Taylor interviews Stefan Collini

Amid the research targets and funding reforms our once world-leading centres for higher learning have lost their way. Laurie Taylor meets Stefan Collini, the Cambridge don mounting a fight back

23 February 2012

Still life

Laurie Taylor talks sadly to himself

22 December 2011

Ex con

Laurie Taylor side-steps a scam

1 November 2011

Never let me go

Laurie Taylor finds it hard to say goodbye

15 September 2011

Ways of seeing John Berger

Marxist, novelist, art historian, farmer, philosopher, artist, object of reverance, provocateur: Laurie Taylor looks at the 85-year-old polymath from every angle

26 July 2011

The wrong note

In which Laurie Taylor takes up a new hobby

21 July 2011

Blank check up

Laurie Taylor can't keep his mouth shut

9 May 2011

Stuart Hall

Stuart Hall talks to Laurie Taylor about race, relativism and revolution

3 May 2011

Mortal fear: Laurie Taylor interviews Lewis Wolpert

Do we have to die? Biologist Lewis Wolpert talks to Laurie Taylor about the mysteries of ageing

23 March 2011

Miles of sex

Laurie Taylor talks dirty

22 March 2011

The Mild One

Laurie Taylor goes hell for leather

18 January 2011

Delusions of grandeur

Information systems professor Ian Angell tells Laurie Taylor where science has gone wrong

11 January 2011

Now let us praise me

Laurie Taylor drowns in compliments

5 November 2010

Calm down, old boy: Laurie Taylor interviews Simon Heffer

Telegraph thunderer Simon Heffer reveals to Laurie Taylor what it’s like being right

28 October 2010

Time is money

Laurie Taylor keeps his meter running

24 September 2010

No nonsense: Laurie Taylor interviews Mary Warnock

Philosopher Mary Warnock tells Laurie Taylor why religion and politics shouldn’t mix

10 September 2010

Never give up

Laurie Taylor looks through a glass darkly

30 June 2010

Of human greed: Laurie Taylor interviews David Harvey

A search for the reasons for the economic meltdown has prompted a turn back to Marx. Laurie Taylor meets the “dialectical materialist” geographer David Harvey who, 40 years into his career, is suddenly being taken seriously

29 June 2010

The cosy atheist: Laurie Taylor interviews Rebecca Goldstein

Laurie Taylor quizzes Rebecca Goldstein, author of 36 Arguments for the Existence of God, on her novel approach to religion

17 May 2010

Who’s who?

Laurie Taylor checks his references

11 May 2010

Aura & out

Laurie Taylor balances his chakras

9 March 2010

Brain drain

Laurie Taylor does some thinking aloud

4 March 2010

Suffer the little children

The Catholic Church not only allowed priests to destroy hundreds of young lives, it blamed the victims and covered up the crimes for decades. For Laurie Taylor it’s personal

19 January 2010

Crying out loud

Laurie Taylor meets national treasure Barry Cryer

12 January 2010

Con trick

Laurie Taylor feels a chilli in the air

30 September 2009

A paon in the arse

Laurie Taylor ruffles a few feathers

2 September 2009

Tragic hero: Laurie Taylor interviews Terry Eagleton

Laurie Taylor meets the Marxist critic gunning for the New Atheists

9 July 2009

What’s my line?

Laurie Taylor stands up for himself

26 March 2009

One track mind

Laurie Taylor hopes he’s not a running joke

20 January 2009

End Game: Nailed down

Laurie Taylor puts his foot in it

7 November 2008

Uncertainty principle: Laurie Taylor interviews Alexei Sayle

Alexei Sayle tells Laurie Taylor why he no longer has to be right all the time

5 November 2008

Walk on by

Laurie Taylor tries a bit of continental drift

5 September 2008

Back to basics

Laurie Taylor flexes his muscles

8 July 2008

The value of doubt

From the archive: Historian Lisa Jardine (1944-2015) on the myth of scientific genius.

7 July 2008

Motley crew

Laurie Taylor gets medieval with the cults

7 May 2008

End Game: Sound of silence

Laurie Taylor waxes lyrical

4 March 2008

Craft works: Laurie Taylor interviews Richard Sennett

Richard Sennett tells Laurie Taylor why he believes in patience, practicality and a job well done

3 March 2008

End Game: Lean on me

Laurie Taylor offers his shoulder to cry on

8 January 2008

Watching David Attenborough: Laurie Taylor talks to the renowned naturalist

Laurie Taylor turns the microscope on to the man who’s brought us life on earth, in the freezer, under the oceans and in the undergrowth

4 January 2008

End game: Bursting out

Laurie Taylor can't contain himself

6 November 2007

End Game: Faking it

Laurie Taylor comes clean

6 September 2007

Only joking

Introducing our recent public debate on humour at London’s Royal Society of Arts, Laurie Taylor discovered that laughter can be a serious business

6 September 2007

End Game: Deaf becomes him

You'll have to speak up for Laurie Taylor

23 July 2007

Slapstick and pratfalls: Laurie Taylor interviews John Mortimer

John Mortimer tells Laurie Taylor why old age is a farce

20 July 2007

End Game: Mixed feelings

Emotionally subnormal and proud of it. That's Laurie Taylor

19 July 2007

Gentle rottweiler: Laurie Taylor interviews Richard Dawkins

Richard Dawkins' attack on religion has been hailed, revered and derided. He talks to Laurie Taylor about the mixed reception of The God Delusion

18 July 2007

End Game: Smarty pants

Laurie Taylor finds he's too clever for his own good

17 July 2007

Secret openings

You don't have to be religious to experience inexplicable moments of epiphany, argues Laurie Taylor

11 July 2007

End Game: Heard this one?

Laurie Taylor is stuck on repeat

11 July 2007

Blind faith

Does it derive from delusion or derangement, irrationality or something deeper? Laurie Taylor explores the meaning of belief

10 July 2007

End Game: . . .said Alice

Laurie Taylor finds a playmate

3 July 2007

Charity Balls: Laurie Taylor Interviews Richard Curtis

From Blackadder to Four Weddings and a Funeral Richard Curtis has made millions out of making us laugh. He tells Laurie Taylor why comedy has a duty to bring relief

29 June 2007

No more Mr Nice Guy: Laurie Taylor on Michael Ignatieff

Once a liberal pin-up and intellectual leader of the global human rights movement, Michael Ignatieff has now fallen out with some of his closest friends. Laurie Taylor tracks an acrimonious battle

14 June 2007

Ol’ misery guts

Laurie Taylor on the slippery slope to pessimism

14 June 2007

Going nowhere: Laurie Taylor interviews John Gray

Progress is an illusion and liberal humanists are adolescent romantics. John Gray tells Laurie Taylor why he believes we're all deluded

31 May 2007

Culture’s revenge: Laurie Taylor interviews Stuart Hall

Disillusioned but not defeated, Stuart Hall talks to Laurie Taylor about the limits of liberalism

31 May 2007

Anorak attack

Laurie Taylor goes into orbit

31 May 2007

Judgement days

Laurie Taylor finds out how long we've got

31 May 2007

Sinking feeling

Laurie Taylor questions yet another time-honoured certainty

31 May 2007

Hot flushes

Laurie Taylor remembers a bad period

31 May 2007

Aura Bore

Laurie Taylor wonders what you do when friends go freaky

31 May 2007

Serious intent: Laurie Taylor interviews Isabel Hilton

Acclaimed journalist Isabel Hilton talks to Laurie Taylor about China, democracy, dictatorships and her passion to represent those at the bottom of the heap

31 May 2007

Line of beauty: Laurie Taylor interviews Edmund White

Edmund White, high priest of casual sex, tells Laurie Taylor why he's still glad to be a gay icon

31 May 2007

Learning to love yourself

Laurie Taylor gets to grips with sharing

31 May 2007

Not waving, but dying

"Down a bit lower. That's it. Now, look at the camera. And now look puzzled. That doesn't look like 'puzzled'. Really puzzled. Hold it. Now, can you get even lower?"

31 May 2007

Defender of faiths: Laurie Taylor interviews Eileen Barker

Eileen Barker, the world's leading expert on religious cults, tells Laurie Taylor how it takes an agnostic to truly understand why people choose to believe

31 May 2007

When I’m gone

Laurie Taylor on loss and lament

31 May 2007

Carbolic and Confession: Laurie Taylor interviews Helena Kennedy

Helena Kennedy tells Laurie Taylor about her Catholic childhood in Glasgow and the roots of her passion for justice

31 May 2007

Alehouse rock: Laurie Taylor interviews Tom Baker

Tom Baker takes Laurie Taylor on a pub crawl

31 May 2007

No more Mr Nice Guy

Laurie Taylor refuses to sign up

31 May 2007

Heavenly bodies

Laurie Taylor finds himself at a feast that'’s impossible to swallow

31 May 2007

Anarchist with attitude: Laurie Taylor interviews Linda Smith

Comedian Linda Smith, who died in 2006, was the president of the British Humanist Association. In this interview from 2004 she talks to Laurie Taylor about atheism, authority and her passion for pricking pomposity

31 May 2007

God of small meetings

Laurie Taylor asks for a show of hands. Wine will be served later

31 May 2007

The Golden Rule of Compassion: Laurie Taylor interviews Karen Armstrong

Karen Armstrong tells Laurie Taylor that religion is more about doing than believing

31 May 2007

Exiled from Redemption: Laurie Taylor interviews Marina Warner

Marina Warner weaves a new set of myths for Laurie Taylor

31 May 2007

Fighting talk

Laurie Taylor takes a walk on the wild side

31 May 2007

Learning to fly: Laurie Taylor interviews Ralph Steadman

Ralph Steadman tells Laurie Taylor how he became such a bother

31 May 2007

Pie in the sky

Laurie Taylor tastes the delights of a very creative city

31 May 2007

The other side of the street: Laurie Taylor interviews Stan Cohen

Sociologist Stan Cohen, who died on 7 January 2013, spent his life analysing and opposing injustice and inhumanity. In this extended interview from 2004, he talks to his friend and collaborator Laurie Taylor about torture, social control and our extraordinary capacity to deny

31 May 2007

‘That’s for the fellahs!’: Laurie Taylor interviews Beryl Bainbridge

Beryl Bainbridge, who died on 2 July 2010, talked to Laurie Taylor in 2004, about death, religion and the novelist's search for higher meaning

31 May 2007

Reader’s digest

Laurie Taylor has an appetite for the incomprehensible

31 May 2007

Leggo Relijan: Laurie Taylor interviews Linton Kwesi Johnson

Linton Kwesi Johnson is one of only two living poets to be published in the Penguin Modern Classics series. Laurie Taylor talks to him about reggae and resistance.

31 May 2007

Count me out

Laurie Taylor gets ready to resign (again)

31 May 2007

Hail to thee blithe Ken

Laurie Taylor on the delight of being (mostly) right

31 May 2007

Permanent Uncertainty: Laurie Taylor interviews Stephen Fry

Stephen Fry tells Laurie Taylor about his search for a soul

31 May 2007

I Give Up

What French letters did for Laurie Taylor

31 May 2007

The luxury of doubt: Laurie Taylor interviews Will Self

Satirist, moralist and literary provocateur —Will Self lectures Laurie Taylor on addiction, debauchery, banality and the search for serious thought

31 May 2007

A word from our sponsor

Laurie Taylor is startled by his mail bag

31 May 2007

This is my Truth: Laurie Taylor interviews Clare Short

Clare Short talks to Laurie Taylor about faith, doubt and the resignation that never was

31 May 2007

Puritan Atheist: Laurie Taylor interviews Christopher Hitchens

Christopher Hitchens talks to Laurie Taylor about George Orwell, false gods and bogus utopias

31 May 2007

FCUK Off

Diary by Laurie Taylor

31 May 2007

Walking in the Dark: Laurie Taylor interviews Jonathan Miller

Laurie Taylor discovers what it's like to be Jonathan Miller

31 May 2007

Folie a Deux

Laurie Taylor learns to play with others

31 May 2007

The Tyranny of Multiculturalism: Laurie Taylor interviews Adam Kuper

Laurie Taylor talks to the distinguished anthropologist, Adam Kuper, about his new book on the concept of culture.

31 May 2007

Bring back that human feeling

After Manhattan what we need is a sense of human community not promises of eternal bliss or the temptations of rampant materialism.

31 May 2007

Thinking allowed

In which Laurie Taylor loses god, battles ideology and discovers humanism

31 May 2007

The story so far: Laurie Taylor interviews Michael Frayn

Counting, categorising, complexity. Michael Frayn offers Laurie Taylor his version of the human condition

31 May 2007

End Game: States of disbelief

Atheists aren’'t the most popular in America. Laurie Taylor reports

31 May 2007