LRB dedicates whole issue to Grenfell Tower tragedy

The latest issue of London Review of Books contains just one article for the first time in its history: a 60,000-word investigation into the Grenfell Tower fire and its political aftermath.

Written by LRB editor-at-large Andrew O’Hagan and entitled "The Tower", the piece is described as “the fullest account yet” of the tragedy which saw 72 people killed when a fire broke out at the 24-storey Grenfell Tower block in London's North Kensington last June.

According to the publication, O'Hagan makes use of more than 10 months’ research and one million words of interview notes and draws on interviews with victims, council workers, firefighters, people inside the cabinet and the council, and local politicians and activists to come to conclusions which "will surprise many readers".

O’Hagan said: “I felt I knew what was at stake in the story. I came with my agenda and I wrote to everyone and I briefed my colleagues – 'let’s get the bastards who did this' – and I felt enthused by the general outrage, and by the people on the ground who appeared to be saying the right thing. And then I listened more, and I began to notice the inventions…”

The online version of "The Tower" includes video interviews and footage of demonstrations and meetings, additional photographs and graphics, and a film produced in parallel to the piece: "Grenfell: The End of an Experiment’.

Reaction to the piece has been mixed, with some readers praising the "brilliant, forensic" investigation but others criticising the account for diminishing the victims and survivors and wrongfully attributing blame to the firefighters rather than Kensington and Chelsea Council.

The piece is free to view on the LRB's website and is available to read in full here.