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Arts Essay

Even Corbyn would find Thomas More’s Utopia too leftwing

The 1516 classic - which is celebrating its 500th anniversary at Somerset House - is a textbook for our troubled times (once you get past the proto-socialist polemic)

2 January 2016

9:00 AM

2 January 2016

9:00 AM

As anniversaries go, the timing could hardly be more apt. As Europe braces itself for the next Islamist attack, the next assault on our civilisation, a season of events marks the 500th birthday of a book that outlined an enlightened vision of the ideal society. Utopia 2016 is a year-long celebration of Thomas More’s Utopia at London’s Somerset House, where the Royal Society and the Royal Academy used to meet.

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Utopia 2016: A Year of Imagination & Possibility is at Somerset House, London WC2, from 25 January.

You might disagree with half of it, but you’ll enjoy reading all of it. Try your first month for free, then just $2 a week for the remainder of your first year.


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