AUTUMN 2026

ORB this issue

ORB – Olney Review of Books is edited and curated by Simon Lee, and supported by an international list of authors and contributors. This season’s issue is inspired by the 300th anniversary of Dean Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels.

Subscribe for free

From the Editor

ORB has three sections. It begins with a different theme each quarter. In the summer it was marking two 250th anniversaries, a celebrated founding text and an obscure hymn. This autumn issue takes a 300th anniversary, of a book which has appealed to adults and children alike for all three centuries, Gulliver’s Travels.

The middle section is about Books in Orbit. In the summer, the articles took readers through the life-cycles of books, including launches and festivals. In this autumn issue, we turn to libraries, in honour of Dolly Parton RIP, whose Imagination Library has sent millions of books into orbit around the world. Our perspective is to look at physical libraries in communities.

The third section carries traditional reviews of recent books and other cultural happenings, starting with Olney, reaching Orkney and going on round the globe, in this issue to the Orient.

The three sections, and the articles within them, can be read in any order, and re-read at your leisure. For instance, we know that some readers of ORB #1 have saved up articles to read one a week, turning our quarterly into your weekly. We like to think that the ideas will be going round and round in your head and that you will consider writing with us and for us.

ORB could stand for the Orkney Review of Books or the Oriental Review of Books but its origins as the Olney Review of Books mean that we aim to celebrate the genius of conversation in small or neglected communities, and the conversation of geniuses in those communities.

There is something about Gulliver’s famous adventures as a giant in a land of small people and as a small person among giants which has held imaginations for 300 years.

There is something beautiful about a person who grew up in a family of 12 in one room, Dolly Parton, creating a library for the globe.

And there is something remarkable about a person of humble origins in Scotland, Andrew Carnegie, making a fortune in the USA and then giving it away to create libraries all over the world. We need to cherish libraries, books, words, story-telling and imagination.

The Inspiration of ORB

The Olney Review of Books (ORB) will feature views and reviews from Olney, the home of John Newton’s Amazing Grace (1773) and of the poet William Cowper’s The Diverting History of John Gilpin (1782), alongside views and reviews from as far away as Bedford (12 miles to the east), the home of John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678), and Philadelphia (3,300 miles to the west), the home of the American Declaration of Independence (4th July, 1776), together with views and reviews of outer space, plus essays on contemporary culture, the market place, and the public square which is shaped by politics, law, education and faith.

There might be an assumption that a big city base fosters cosmopolitan as well as metropolitan views, whereas a small market town at the cusp of Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire is, at its best, Arcadian. But there is no reason why ORB cannot have a global outlook and feature diverse viewpoints.

Although rooted in its most famous collaboration of 250 years ago, the book of Olney Hymns, the town can also foster a forward-thinking mindset.

Indeed, the most famous hymn composed in Olney, known to us as Amazing Grace, was originally entitled by John Newton, Faith’s review and expectation which captures ORB’s spirit of being a review which generates and explores expectation.

Books in Orbit

Simon Lee introduces our Books in Orbit section which this quarter focuses on libraries:

Libraries are life-changing. For example, I first asked out Patricia McNulty in Oxford’s Bodleian Law Library in 1981. We married in 1982. By the end of the decade, we were living in Northern Ireland. In the 1990s, Patricia studied for her Masters in Ethnomusicology, using the library at Queen’s University Belfast. Later in the 1990s, at Liverpool Hope University College, Grace Sheppard opened The Sheppard-Worlock Library, and we began a regeneration project, creating a second campus for the creative arts, Hope at Everton. In the 2000s, I was much involved with the Carnegie movement at its sporting end but with growing awareness of its library philanthropy. Now I have the honour of chairing the Everton Library Trust. Quintin Oliver was a pivotal figure in the voluntary sector and the peace process when I was working in Northern Ireland. Now he owns a Carnegie Library! So I invited Quintin to open this section and then asked supporters of the Everton Library Trust to explore what libraries mean to different individuals. We celebrated the 130th birthday of Everton Library on 9th October 2026, even though it has been derelict for twenty years. We are looking to raise £11million to bring it back into life as the hub of the local community. The new Prime Minister of the UK, Andy Burnham, is a lifelong supporter of Everton FC who wants people in every postcode in the country to experience an improved quality of life. From this library, people could see the old ground of Everton, at Goodison Park, and the Anfield ground of Liverpool FC. If philanthropists, businesses, councils and politicians from mayors to prime ministers could help us, every postcode could have a library at the heart of its community. These articles explain why that matters. ORB presents this section as a tribute to Dolly Parton, who died earlier this year. May she rest in peace. In addition to her other talents, she is a modern day Carnegie in that her Imagination Library has distributed millions of books to children around the world. Can everyone also have access to a library at the hub of their community?

Become a contributor

On the Eclipse of the Moon

The first two verses of that 1776 hymn, by John Newton, explain why we have adopted the word and the imagery of ORB:

On the Eclipse of the Moon
30th July, 1776

The moon in silver glory shone,
And not a cloud in sight,
When suddenly a shade begun
To intercept her light.

How fast across her orb it spread,
How fast her light withdrew!
A circle tinged with languid red,
Was all remained in view.

FROM THIS ISSUE

ORB

Brand New Gulliversary!

Brand New Gulliversary!

Christopher Newman reflects on space law, Apollo, the Space Shuttle and the books that shaped his journey, exploring how wonder, governance and human responsibility meet beyond Earth’s atmosphere.
Satirical Foot Notes

Satirical Foot Notes

We are often told that politics on either side of the Atlantic is beyond satire. The same is increasingly said of life in universities, in faith communities, in the media,…
The Storytellers: From Herodotus to Dean Swift and beyond.

The Storytellers: From Herodotus to Dean Swift and beyond.

On history, imagination and the enduring human need to tell stories Dean Jonathan Swift of St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, was not the only acclaimed academic who, from his lofty perch,…

After-word

ORB is seeking to present a rounded view of books through the ages, of the genius of small communities, and of the world. Please do consider writing for us or suggesting topics or examples, and please do forward this, encouraging others to subscribe to this free, fresh look at the orbit of the word. Our next issue in mid-December will focus on books for, and customs at, Christmas.

Meanwhile, some subscribers have said they would welcome commentary and reflections in newsletters between the quarters. As a new publication, operating through the goodwill of people, we will try to respond to that feedback, thank you. Ideally, we would together develop a community on-line and perhaps create a hybrid ORB Festival, both on-line and in Olney itself. Thank you.