Journalism
My name is James Riding and I'm a journalist. I read English at Magdalen College, Oxford and I have an MA in Newspaper Journalism from City, University of London.
I am currently a senior reporter at Inside Housing. I regularly review books for The Times and have contributed essays, interviews and book reviews to Prospect, Unherd, Literary Review, The London Magazine and more.
Below is a selection of my writing.

Contact: jamesriding1056@gmail.com
Twitter: @jamesriding10

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The billion-dollar search for immortality - 22 June 2023
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Inside TfL's mission to build thousands of affordable homes - 17 April 2023
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Landlords under threat as clamour grows for rent controls - 14 April 2022
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If you were prime minister for a day, what would you change? - 8 April 2022
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Levelling up chief backs Burnham over controversial Manchester HS2 station plan - 6 April 2022
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Will property firms thrive in the metaverse? - 28 March 2022
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Should the UK embrace wooden skyscrapers? - 1 February 2022
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You've bought a shopping centre? Why the hell have you done that? - 13 January 2022
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'I'm on equal footing with the Eiffel Tower': inside Paris’ tallest new skyscraper - 23 December 2021
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Q+A: Glasgow leader Susan Aitken on Cop26, student housing, retrofitting and paying back female workers with property - 13 December 2021
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Q+A: Kennedy Wilson's Mary Ricks on European expansion, reaping rewards in Ireland and female leaders - 19 November 2021
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Six key property takeaways from Cop26 - 15 November 2021
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'Tenants that can pay should pay': new laws to settle Covid rent debts announced - 9 November 2021
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La Défense: From bankers and towers to cyber experts and underground art - 20 September 2021
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Q+A: Ric Clark on how 9/11 changed buildings, the market and Manhattan forever - 10 September 2021
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Twenty years on: inside 9/11's impact on real estate markets - 10 September 2021
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Lights, camera, action: inside the booming film studio sector - 23 August 2021
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Why leading private equity firms are breaking into Europe's debt market – and what they'll lend against - 29 July 2021
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Power hungry: London’s best restaurants for politicos - 18 May 2021
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Murder, They Spoke - July 2020
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On Deaf Ears - April 2020
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What Lies Beneath - December 2019
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Dickens's Spirits - 25 December 2020
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One Little Room An Everywhere - June 2020
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Brent prepares for Fairtrade Fortnight amidst Covid and Brexit - 7 January 2021
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Covid-hit community kitchen reopens amid ‘heartrending’ rise in demand - 6 January 2021

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Show Me the Bodies by Peter Apps review — how we let Grenfell happen - 19 November 2022
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Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver review — when David Copperfield got hooked on hillbilly heroin - 20 October 2022
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Best of Friends by Kamila Shamsie review — boys, bazaars and dark teenage secrets - 24 September 2022
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Train Lord by Oliver Mol review — how I overcame my ten-month migraine - 30 July 2022
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The Sorcerer of Pyongyang by Marcel Theroux review — playing Dungeons & Dragons in North Korea - 02 July 2022
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The Facemaker by Lindsey Fitzharris review — one surgeon’s battle to mend the disfigured soldiers of the First World War - 10 June 2022
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Tenants by Vicky Spratt review — on the front line of Britain’s housing emergency - 10 June 2022
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What I Wish I’d Known When I Was Young by Rachel Sylvester and Alice Thomson review — life lessons from Angela Rayner and Sajid Javid - 07 May 2022
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The Man Who Tasted Words by Guy Leschziner review — inside the strange world of our senses - 22 January 2022
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Animal Vegetable Criminal by Mary Roach review — from drunk elephants to burglar bears - 6 November 2021
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Rereading: Possession by AS Byatt — a love letter to literature - 6 October 2021
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Summary judgement: a brief history of the book blurb - 15 June 2021
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Interview | Matthew Bevis and Jonathan Watkins on Edward Lear: Moment to Moment - 7 October 2022
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Review | Demon Daze: Kawanabe Kyōsai - 13 July 2022
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Interview | Robert Douglas-Fairhurst on 'The Turning Point: A Year That Changed Dickens and the World' - 16 September 2021
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Interview | Ben Schott on writing ‘racy’ scenes, the element of surprise and 'Jeeves and the Leap of Faith' - 3 March 2021
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Essay | The Most Mercenary of Men - February 2021
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Essay | The Flood Leads on to Fortune - October 2020
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Essay | Books That Changed My Life: ‘Tales from Ovid’ - 14 August 2020
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Interview | James Shapiro on cinematic storytelling and ‘Shakespeare in a Divided America’ - 4 August 2020
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Interview | A. Naji Bakhti on ‘Between Beirut and the Moon’, inheritance and coming of age in Lebanon - 31 July 2020
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Interview | Ra Page on Stories of Uprising and Protest in the Age of Coronavirus - 1 May 2020
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Review | Wing - 29 April 2020
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Interview | Sam Riviere on Martial, Authenticity and Stealing - 6 April 2020
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Interview | Joo Yeon Park on Beckett, Failure and 'the Unword' - 28 Feb 2020
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‘People need beer’: Craft breweries deliver to drinkers in lockdown - 9 January 2021
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'It’s not fair on responsible operators': pubs hit by takeaway drinks ban - 5 January 2021
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Interview: Trash Boat - 22 March 2021
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‘There’s No Stopping The Arts’: Meet The Indie Filmmakers Looking To The Future - 15 March 2021
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Covid-safe shared workspaces in Hackney on flexibility without formalities - 18 January 2021
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Robert Crampton reveals East End brawls against BNP before gentrification - 8 January 2021
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Councils side with Bishopsgate Goodsyard campaigners as GLA thumbs up development - 2 December 2020
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Hackney startup expands despite pandemic amid the ‘heartbeat of fintech in London’ - 9 November 2020















My long read 'The Flood Leads on to Fortune' in The London Magazine (October 2020)
Research
In 2019, I assisted A. N. Wilson with research and fact-checking for his book The Mystery of Charles Dickens (2020).

