Celebrating More’s Utopia 500 years on

 

Thomas More’s Utopia, first published in Latin in 1516, is one of the world’s most famous books. It has given us the adjective ‘Utopian’, a mode of thought (‘Utopianism’), a literary genre. Yet, at some point in its 500-year history, the concept of ‘Utopia’ became detached from More’s book. It came to express an ideal, which has its own legacy in the brand names it inspires: there are cafes and a pdf reader named after More’s imaginary land, a travel agent I used to cycle past on Leman Street, even a barber’s shop in Ely.