New Escapologist


New Escapologist is a UK-based lifestyle magazine. It originally ran between 2007 and 2017, returning after a hiatus in 2023. The magazine takes the stance that work has too central a position in western life and that work, consumption and pursuit of social status too often take precedence over happiness, liberty, and unstructured leisure. Simple living, creativity and Epicureanism are offered as solutions to the problems of overwork and overconsumption.

History

New Escapologist was founded in 2007. Speaking at a public event together in 2009, Robert Wringham told Tom Hodgkinson that he started New Escapologist after reading Hodgkinson's book How to be Free alongside a biography of Houdini and Among the Bohemians: experiments in living by Virginia Nicholson.
A pilot issue was printed in 2007, a first canonical issue in 2008, and a launch party was held at the Glasgow CCA in 2009.
In 2011, New Escapologist organized a zine fair in support of the student occupation of Heatherington House at the University of Glasgow. The same year saw the launch of a fifth issue at The Arches theatre and nightclub, and a sixth issue at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
In 2014, around the time of the magazine's tenth issue, a spin-off book written by Wringham was announced. Following a successful crowdfunding campaign, the book was published by Unbound on 28 January 2016 followed by a German edition published by Heyne Verlag later that same year.
In 2017, it was announced that the magazine would close after a decade but would continue online as a subscription essay series mediated by Patreon. The first of these essays went live in April 2017. A New Escapologist newsletter also began in December 2022.
New Escapologist returned to print in 2023 after a successful crowdfunding campaign.

Production

The magazine's distinct typography, according to a colophon printed in the back of each issue, was achieved using Donald Knuth's TeX typesetting system with a layout based on an ancient Ge'ez liturgical text seen at the Matenadaran Manuscripts Museum in Armenia.
The magazine's logo, featured prominently in the masthead of early issues and at the magazine's website is the ISO standard "running man" symbol usually seen on exit signs.

Notable contributors