Funny Weather

Across many years of writing, Olivia Laing has returned to a single question: what is art for? This collection gathers essays on paintings, books and music, and makes the case that these works matter most when they help people make sense of hard personal circumstances or reveal the truth about cruel and unjust politics. The same concern runs through her earlier books, including To the River and The Lonely City.

The essays also trace how her passions took shape, from the painters and writers who first shaped her thinking to 'Funny Weather', the column she writes for Frieze. In that column she works through the political changes of the past three years.

The humanities are being undervalued at a moment that feels menacing, and many people insist that art cannot change anything in the world. Laing disagrees. She argues that art alters how we perceive the world, exposes inequality, and points toward new ways of living.