Emma Elinor Lundin

Brittiska drottningen Elizabeth II:s bortgång har fått enorm uppmärksamhet. Visar det på monarkins styrka eller på drottningens egna popularitet, som en folkets trygga mormor? Historikern Emma Lundin tar oss med in i monarkins mående och blickar även framåt, mot arvtagaren Charles många utmaningar.

Essä publicerad i Kristianstadsbladet, 1 oktober 2022. Läs hela texten här.

Women still do the lion's share of raising children and cleaning the house. It's time for that to change.

Review of Helen McCarthy’s Double Lives: A History of Working Motherhood (Bloomsbury, 2020) and Sally Howard’s The Home Stretch: Why the Gender Revolution Stalled in the Kitchen (Atlantic, 2020) for Prospect, published 11 June 2020. Read the whole article here.

In the digital era, there is little to be lost from returning collections to their countries of origin—and everything to be gained.

Published by Prospect on 25 March 2019. Read the original here.

Published in The Guardian G2, 8 November 2016. Read the original here

Published in The Guardian's G2, 16 September 2014. Read the original here

Published by Make it last, 5 March 2015. Read the original here

Published by Make it last, 25 November 2014. Read the original here

Published by Make it last, 21 January 2015. Read the original here

Published by The Guardian, 4 April 2013 (read the original here)

Published by The Guardian on 18 January 2012 - read the original here

Published by The Guardian, 1 December 2011 - read the original here

Published in Condé Nast Traveller, April 2013

Having made their names with with Shelter Social Club, a small group of design motels in and around Santa Barbara, Chris Sewell and Kenny Osehan (pictured above) are ready to unveil the Ojai Rancho Inn. Hippy-chic Ojai is a popular weekend retreat for Angelenos, with hiking trails and farmers' markets; the couple have stayed true to the town's make-and-mend ethos by keeping original wood beams and panelling intact while adding a contemporary edge through collaborations with designers and artists. The 18 rooms have colourful artworks by Carly Margolis, wooden iPod docks by Woodtec's Will Salley, Native American-inspired peshtemal bedspreads by Kylea Borges and ceramic lamps by Heather Levine. 'Ceramics are a vital part of Ojai culture," says Sewell. "Beatrice Wood, an influential ceramicist, moved here in 1947 and continues to inspire through the Beatrice Wood Center of the Arts. Carly Margolis came up with the idea of painting sacred portals on pieces of wood cut into circles and triangles. Her work communicates a spiritual story and we thought her presence was needed."

www.sheltersocialclub.com; doubles from about £65

Published in the June 2009 issue of Condé Nast Traveller

Shopping mania before the Royal wedding: published on 15 April 2011 - online version here

London partied in the streets: published 30 April 2011 - online version here

Subediting of English copy (translated from Swedish) published in RODEO's spring/summer issue, February 2012

Published on now-defunct NAAG.com, 16 February 2011

London is home to an incredible number of great art galleries, but our favorite is one that you might just have walk past on your way to Tate Modern — the concrete-clad, well-camouflaged Hayward, smack-bang in the middle of the South Bank. And in that sentence you’ll find the heart of the gallery’s problem: pretty much everything else on the South Bank is covered in concrete, and as the Hayward doesn’t have a riverside OR street-level entrance, it’s near impossible to find, even when it’s right in front of your eyes. But we like that. Anything this difficult to get to must be worth the effort. And the Hayward is no exception to that rule.

Don’t get us wrong, you should definitely visit Tate Modern too, but the Hayward is much more manageable in size, less subjected to general tourist crowds who come only to tick the address off their to-see lists, and we’ve uncovered plenty of proof that it’s pretty darn cool too. Exhibit A: it’s the only art gallery in the world where we’ve admired paintings only to discover a Pet Shop Boy standing next to us (serious off-the-scale coolness, right there). Exhibit B: curator-director Ralph Rugoff has transformed the space in the last five years, organizing new takes on “old” subjects (including a brilliant exhibition of Alexander Rodchenko photographs a few years ago and Ed Ruscha paintings last year), and we have it on good art-world insider authority that he’s a man of great artistic vision who wants to turn the entire gallery — including that drab exterior — into an art show.

Right now we’re getting ready to visit the British Art Show 7, open from February 16 until April 17, and we think you should too — especially as it (according to the gallery’s official propaganda) “takes as its motif the idea of the comet as a harbinger of change, a measure of time and a marker of historical recurrence.” We couldn’t resist seeing it for ourselves even if we tried...

Part of the Southbank Centre, South Bank, London SE1 8XX www.haywardgallery.org.uk

Published in April 2012 - read the original here

We figured that there’d be some great food in Florence (if we’re perfectly honest, food was one of our main reasons for going, what with it being the capital of Tuscany and all), but having lunched on below-par pizzas on one of the main touristy piazzas (why does that always happen on holidays? It’s not like we’d ever go for lunch round Times Square or London’s Leicester Square…) we decided to get some restaurant tips from an actual Florentine. And, as it turns out, it was probably the best advice we’ve ever taken.

See, our Florence insider sent us straight to Il Santo Bevitore with the words “this is where real people go,” and she was right. The dimly lit, fancy bistro-style restaurant is located on Via Santo Spirito, just south of the Ponte alla Carraia and a minute’s walk from the Ponte Vecchio but, while it’s not far from tourist-centric Firenze, it caters to people who know what they’re doing and where to eat in town. Il Santo Bevitore serves some of the best Tuscan food we’ve ever had — think a stunning bit of pasta followed by an incredible lamb dish and a dessert so brilliant we almost have seconds — which is made using traditional ingredients in a more contemporary way, and it really works. We spent hours eating (and drinking) our way through the menu and as far as perfect food memories are concerned, this is one of the top 10. Evviva!

Via Santo Spirito 66, Florence, Italy tel + 39 055 211264, Ilsantobevitore.com

Published on now-defunct NAAG.com 24 January 2011

London is great and everything, but it’s not particularly easy to get a good view of it if you’re stuck in the central parts of town. Unless you feel like heading to Parliament Hill or Crystal Palace, or climb the gazillion steps to the top of St Paul’s Cathedral or The Monument, we suggest you set out on a night-time journey to Waterloo Bridge.

With traffic whizzing past, the murky Thames underneath your feet, the limelights of the West End on one side and the grime of south London on the other, you’ll have a dazzling view of the city from here. Turn west and you’ll see the river curl round the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben and the Savoy towers on the north side, and the London Eye (where your average tourist goes to see London from above — such losers), the Shell Building and the recently upgraded Royal Festival Hall to the south. Look towards the east, and you’ll have a perfect vision of the National Theatre bunker (the finest of the South Bank’s famous Brutalist monsters), the Oxo Tower, St Paul’s, the Gherkin and other the up-and-coming skyscrapers of the City, and the twinkling lights of Canary Wharf on the horizon.

It’s all pretty romantic — especially if you manage to erase the scary double-decker/taxi traffic just behind you from your mind — and if you don’t fall in love with this disorganized, manic and glorious town while pondering its beauty from this particular spot, you truly must have a heart of stone.

Across River Thames from the Strand to the South Bank, or between Temple and Waterloo stations

Published in April 2012 - read the original here

What do you do if you run a design agency and self-styled “font forge” but want to make sure your employees don’t get bored of what can ultimately be quite slow-paced and academic work? Well, if you’re Copenhagen-based agency e-Types, you open a concept store to show off your staff’s skills to the wider world.

Playtype is a small glass-fronted room on Vaernedamsvej in Copenhagen’s achingly cool Vesterbro, where you can commission fonts created by e-Types’ designers or pick up some of the stuff they’ve already made, which line the walls and lie on the great big dining table in the center of the room. Everything is brilliantly crafted: we’re talking beautifully minimalist notebooks, gorgeous handle-less coffee mugs with capital letters printed on them, some canvas tote bags, bottles of sparkling wine, and great framed posters embossed with letters or limited-edition artwork by Mads Lynnerup, so although the selection is pretty small, we’re all pretty much spoilt for choice.

If we ever move to Copenhagen, we’ll probably treat the place like our second office, hanging out there every day until they kick us out. But until then we’ll just put those coffee mugs on every Christmas and birthday wish-list until we have a full set. And maybe one day we’ll find enough space in a suitcase to bring back one of those letter posters…

Vaernedamsvej 6, Copenhagen tel 00 45 6040 6914 Playtype.com

Published on now-defunct NAAG.com, 14 January 2011

The Gladstone Arms — named after the Victorian-era Prime Minister whose scary-looking face features on a mural outside — is pretty much the only pub we’d like to live in in London. From the outside, it looks dark, forbidding (he really did have angry eyes, that man) and a bit rundown, but open the door and you’ll find yourself in a tiny, warm, living-room-style pub, ready to mingle with regulars, staff and the folk and blues musicians who play here a few nights every week.

You’ll most likely stumble across both the the tiny bar at one end of the room and the even smaller stage at the other while looking for a place to sit — there are a few chairs and tables to lounge at spread evenly between the two, where you can sip tea, beer or spirits, basking in the retro atmosphere and charm. We don’t know much about indie-folk music that the Glad specializes in, but that doesn’t matter — it’s perfect here.

Every time we visit the Glad, we pick up some new hobbies, be it a reawakened love of card games, an obsession with Johnny Cash, a fondness for Pieminister pies, or a taste for Dalwhinnie Single Malt whisky. A teenage Charles Dickens lived in poverty on this street in the 1820s, so you might find that your visit inspires you to read some of his novels — in which case we suggest you go for Little Dorrit — after all, she married at the church just up the road.

Another reason we love the Glad so much is that it’s hidden away on the wrong side of the Marshalsea/Borough High Street junction, miles away from the nearest tourist and yet worth the (very short) trek. There are plenty of other good, traditional-style pubs in this part of London (the Lord Clyde on Clennam Street; the Royal Oak on Tabard Street; the Roebuck on Great Dover Street) and as the Glad is both popular and minuscule, we quite often have to decamp somewhere else. But still, the Glad is where most of our pub nights will start. Just as long as you don’t tell anyone else about it...

64 Lant St., London SE1 thegladstoneborough.wordpress.com

Published on now-defuncted NAAG.COM, November 2010

Let’s get one thing straight — right here, right now — the finest coffee in London comes courtesy of Monmouth Coffee, whatever any young upstart barista chain might claim. Seriously publicity shy (owner Anita Le Roy doesn’t talk to the press), the company imports and roasts beans from single farms, estates and cooperatives, cutting middle-men, getting exclusives and giving a good deal to both people on the ground and people in their shops. How’s that for sustainable and fair trade?

Out of its three shops in London (which, in fact, are the only Monmouth shops in the whole world, although you’ll find the beans stocked at the best cafés and restaurants in town too), our favorite is the one at Borough Market. It’s easy to find — it’s the one on the corner of Stoney Street and Park Street with a queue that stretches all the way from the counter to Neal’s Yard Dairy 60 feet away. On a cold, dark, rainy November day, that’s as good a quality mark as any other.

There’s a big communal table where you’ll find bread and spread in the middle of the room, but despite the fact that the treats you’ll find here are made by other Borough Market traders (think the best chocolate brownies, lovely croissants and delicious truffles), there’s no doubt that coffee, glorious coffee, is the main reason why people come here. Buy filter coffees, lattes and flat whites, then get a bag of beans — whole or ground to suit your coffee-maker and skills — to go. Just don’t blame us if you fall in love with the scent of the coffee, the creaminess of the frothy milk, the smiley (handsome, even) faces, the utilitarian 1940s décor, the fact that they (rightly) call the borough “The Borough,” the market spirit, the coffee itself — all of which will make you want to return indecently often. Blame Monmouth’s quiet brilliance instead. We do, pretty much every day.

2 Park St., The Borough, London SE1 9AB, monmouthcoffee.co.uk (open Mon-Sat). Also at 27 Monmouth St. in Covent Garden (Mon-Sat) and 34 Maltby St., Bermondsey (Sat mornings only).

Published on CNTraveller.com 30 July 2010 - read the original story here

Published by Brittbloggen, 23 February 2012 - read the original here

Det kan vara svårt att höra historiens alla vindslag genom Londons buller, men det finns vissa platser där tiden verkar stå still. En sådan ligger på hörnet mellan Copperfield Street och Pepper Street i Borough, bara några meter bort från trafiken och stressen på Marshalsea Street och Borough High Street. Här hittar man de (nästan) bortglömda resterna av All Hallows Church, en kyrka som bombades två gånger under andra världskriget och sedan lämnades att förfalla.

På 50-talet revs stora delar – en mindre del byggdes om till ett nytt kyrkorum medan resten av ruinerna övertogs av naturen – men 1971 stängdes kyrkan för gott och prästen flyttade ut. Sedan dess har All Hallows mest stått övergiven (med undantag för en period på 80-talet när den användes som inspelningsstudio av Depeche Mode), medan trädgården i de gamla ruinerna blivit en oas för oss som bor och arbetar i närheten.

Efter många års kamp har Southwark Cathedral, som äger All Hallows, nu gått med på att överge sina planer på att riva kyrkan och trädgården. Och tur är väl det – för som en koppling mellan det gamla och det nya Borough är All Hallows oslagbart.