Unlike other subscribed magazines the LRB has an app bad enough to make you consider cancelling your subscription. If you search for something it kicks you out and asks you to subscribe. It would be inconvenient to out in your details, but don’t worry: this isn’t even an option. Round and round you go.You have to check by edition to find something you want to read. And let’s be honest there’s always quite a lot you can’t be arsed to read in each individual edition.It’s prehistoric and typically LRB.Back catalogue and ability to search and access it. This is the key to subscriber satisfaction in the modern age, guys.

The poems are usually opaque, very occasionally interesting.Book reviews can be very long and interesting, full enough to save you the trouble of reading some important nonfiction books.The LRB sometimes has lengthy and really interesting articles on major questions of the day. A memorable case was the entire issue given over to what really happened on the day of the Grenfell Tower fire and on the days afterwards. Too often we get long articles about obscure people, and letters putting right extremely minor questions about who did or didn’t say something or wasn’t or was somewhere. In thirty years’ time the LRB will have an article about a minor artist who did or did not spend time with one of Banksy’s relatives. But when it’s good, it’s very good.

I live abroad now and reading the LRB on my iPad is excellent. The paper issues don’t always catch up with me, but the app means that I can always have the recent issues with me.The interface is simple and not too confusing, and they’ve resisted the temptation to use keywords and metadata to give you a deep dive into the archives at the end of each a article. Instead you have just the next article. The only thing that’s missing is a way of checking out the historical archives, but to be honest I would only use it to read the personal sections.

I wonder if the developer could put in a search function? It would really enhance the experience of using the app for me. If I’ve forgotten to save something to the scrapbook it’s really hard to find again.The other thing that would improve it for me is if it was easier to get the menu lines to pop up - it feels like you really have to work to make them appear in order to go back to the contents page or home page when you’re inside an article. Other than that I do enjoy the minimalist look - leaves the words to speak for themselves and doesn’t distract you.