Friday 28th November 2025

Books

What I discovered when I started reading French books

My most hated subject at school was French. I mean, I hated every subject – the only thing I remember liking in all my years at school was the...

The lying life of authors: John le Carré and authorial double-lives

“I’m not a spy who writes novels, I am a writer who briefly worked...

The caring individual: John le Carré at the Weston

At the back of the Weston Library, in a small room off to one...

Why we’re obsessed with Greek myth retellings

In every bookshop today, from Blackwell’s to Waterstones, an unmistakable pattern emerges: Greek myth...

Iraq is not a twentieth century Crusade

Oxford historian Christopher Tyerman delivers a polemic speech against rhetorical comparisons between the war on terror and the crusades

Salman Rushdie and Trump: Migration, modernity, and transformation

William Arlid Crona writes about Rushdie's latest

A feminist rereading of Austen for 2018

The 18th century novel is surprisingly relevant to the issues facing women today

Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature: reflections on Kazuo Ishiguro’s recognition

Did the Swedish Academy miss the subtlety of his writing?

Philosophical economists and privatised oceans

Barney Pite reviews Varoufakis’ Talking to My Daughter About the Economy

‘The worst Chosen One who’s ever been chosen’

'Carry On: The Rise and Fall of Simon Snow' offers an unconventional take on the 'Chosen One' genre

Review: Fall Out

Tim Shipman reveals the chaos and bitterness of post-referendum politics

Toxic Masculinity and the Mythopoetical Movement

Books like Michael Meade's Men and Waters of Life are just as important as Feminist classics in the fight towards equality

Review: ‘Women & Power: A Manifesto’ by Mary Beard

Beard’s new book shows that new trolls are using the same old tricks to silence women

12 books to get you through 2018

You may need these books to survive 2018, if it is as rocky as 2017

The legend of Sherlock Holmes

Erin O'Neill explores the iconic status of Arthur Conan Doyle's literary creation

The Christie Mystery

Raffaella Sero considers why Agatha Christie's characters still enthral us in the present day

We need diverse books now more than ever

Sally Christmas reflects on the importance of diverse literature in the current political climate

Poirot’s enduring appeal

Branagh’s Murder on the Orient Express reminds us why the detective remains so intriguing, writes Raffaella Sero

Fairytales can show us the horrors of Hitler’s Germany

The stories of Günter Grass bring Germany’s repressed trauma into the light

The late Mr Salinger deserves his enduring reputation

The Catcher in the Rye encapsulates central tenets of our modern world, writes Barney Pite

A beastly tale of life and death

Josephine Southon reflects on the animals and beasts in Grimms' fairy tales

Science fiction that shaped the Revolution

Daniel Antonio Villar looks at the impact of Red Star, by Alexander Bognadov

Philip Pullman’s La Belle Sauvage: His Darkest One Yet

Raffaella Sero reviews Philip Pullman's latest novel

Rock’s best storyteller

"Darnielle's new novel confirms the status that Rolling Stone granted him; Rock's best storyteller", writes Barney Pite.

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