Tuesday 3rd February 2026

Books

Rory Stewart’s ‘Middleland: Dispatches from the Borders’ in review

Middleland (2025) is not his masterpiece, but it is as much worth reading as any of his work – erudite, perceptive, and beautifully written.  
Books Hassan Akram -

Lost and found: The art of translation

Translation should be more than mechanic substitution. It demands that the translator acts as a conduit, conveying the intricacies of emotion, style, and intention, while negotiating the hurdles of linguistic complexity.
Books Beatrix Arnold -

How does an Oxford student read for fun?

No matter which book is in front of me, I’m almost always reading in twenty-second bursts, and I’m constantly thinking about what else I could be looking at if I only picked up my phone.
Books Ben O'Brien -

Damaging detachment: Reflections on the Booker Prize 

This Christmas vac, I made up my mind to get out of my reading slump using the Booker Prize shortlist, revealing toxic masculinity as a key theme.
Books Charlie Bailey -
Latest

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.

House of Fear and the reinvention of fairytale

Libby Cherry writes about the feminist undertones to Leonora Carrington's The Hearing Trumpet

Nancy Drew – feminist icon or tired corporate creation?

Ellie Duncan explores whether the children's detective series Nancy Drew is progressive or not

Not Forgetting William Hazlitt

Despite critical acclaim, William Hazlitt is now scarcely read.

Turtles All The Way Down review: messy, clichéd, and pretentious

John Green’s latest novel is a messy, sprawling cliché, writes Barney Pite

Angel Hill review – ‘It may be simple, but it isn’t empty’

Michael Longley’s Forward Prize short-listed collection is elegant and timeless, writes Barney Pite

An improbable journey to the East

Sam Dalrymple reflects on mundanity and self-discovery in Bouvier’s The Way of the World

Reconsidering the Lobster: Wallace’s Dostoyevsky

David Foster Wallace cuts to the core of what makes Dostoyevsky invaluable, writes Barney Pite.

Project 1917: The revolution will be tweeted

The historical Project 1917 is bringing new life to the Russian Revolution, writes Lucy Enderby

Assassination attempts amid the violence that tore Kingston apart

The first book written by a Jamaican to win the Man Booker Prize is an epic in the truest sense of the word, writes Jacob Cheli

Exploring the poetry of the everyday world

Quiet, mysterious Haruki Murakami fuses local culture with global emotions, writes Lucy Enderby

Alain de Botton: “The university system is failing people”

Author Alain de Botton, founder of the School of Life, talks philosophy, mental health and the education system

Meet Woolf’s doll house inspiration

A miniaturised book which inspired Woolf's Orlando is to be published

In this fractured world, does empathy really hold us all together?

Against Empathy is a compelling and relevant reevaluation of compassion

There’s more to prehistory than cave drawings and diplodocuses

Katie Sayer revisits Yuval Noah Harari's tale of a revolutionary world
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