Hello, this is the website of Dorian Lynskey, where you’ll find information about my books, a selection of my articles, contact details and other useful links.
I am the author of two acclaimed books, 33 Revolutions Per Minute: A History of Protest Songs (2011) and The Ministry of Truth: A Biography of George Orwell’s 1984 (2019), which was longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize and the Orwell Prize. My new book Everything Must Go: The Stories We Tell About the End of the World is published on 11 April 2024.
My journalism has appeared in titles including The Guardian, The Observer, i, BBC Culture, GQ, Q, MOJO, Empire, Billboard, Air Mail, Pitchfork, The New Statesman, The Spectator, The Literary Review, The Los Angeles Times, UnHerd, The Big Issue and The Village Voice. I also co-host the Origin Story and Oh God, What Now? podcasts.
A riveting and brilliantly original exploration of our fantasies of the end of the world from Mary Shelley’s The Last Man to HBO’s The Last of Us, via Stanley Kubrick, J. G. Ballard, and Mad Max.
Dorian Lynskey explores stories of the end in fiction and film, from nuclear holocaust to collision with an asteroid, a revolt of the machines or a collapsing climate. Such fantasies of doom have been informed by political and scientific developments, and have shaped the narratives of politics, science and journalism in turn.
As the world emerges from a devastating pandemic and the news is full of wildfires, floods and hurricanes, as we focus on the implications of AI and the resurgent threat of nuclear war, these stories — and what they say about us — seem more relevant than ever. And yet every generation has had its own fears. We may expect the end, but so did our forebears. What is it in human nature that makes us imagine, and even crave, the ultimate conclusion to our story?
The result is nothing less than a cultural history of the modern world, weaving together politics, history, science, and high and popular culture, in a book that is grippingly readable and deeply illuminating about ourselves and our times.
Book extracts & interviews
Who was the real Dr Strangelove? (BBC Culture)
