books
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How the Brexit vote revealed Britain's divided cultureHow did our culture became so polarised – and what can Richard Hoggart’s The Uses of Literacy, written 60 years ago, teach us about how we live today? -
A callout for poetry translatorsThe Stephen Spender prize for poetry in translation opens for submissions on 27 February. Award judge Margaret Jull Costa reflects on today’s need for translators
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I fear the sack every day from the best job I’ve ever hadThe author on walking London’s streets, siestas and the daily creative struggle -
The World of Mr Casaubon by Colin Kidd – in defence of George Eliot’s pedantCasaubon’s unfinished Key to All Mythologies was not, by the lights of his time, out of touch or deluded
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A Herring Famine by Adam O’Riordan – poems of craft and guileA promising poet’s second collection delivers work full of subtle music that wears its heart on its sleeve
news
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The Book of Dust: after 17 years, Pullman's latest work has new relevanceAs Philip Pullman announces his ‘equel’ to His Dark Materials, writers pay tribute to his exquisite storytelling and ‘daring heresy’
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How The Buddha of Suburbia let me in to a much wider worldI recognised Hanif Kureishi’s depiction of a young man’s uncertain cultural identity immediately, and it began to show me how to be at home everywhere
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Book Capella opens for Russian eliteCharging around £100 per visit to its pricey collection, it’s not clear if this is an actual library or just a novel spot for wealthy Russians to hold meetings
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books in 2017
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Books to watch in 2017Jane Austen’s bicentenary, Arundhati Roy’s first novel in 20 years, and unpublished F Scott Fitzgerald ... the literary year ahead
regulars
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PodcastPodcastReclaiming history with Yaa Gyasi and Chibundu Onuzo - books podcastThe authors of two buzzy new novels, Homegoing and Welcome to Lagos, explore ancient and modern stories of west Africa
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Reading groupReading groupOverwhelming, yet gorgeous writing: Angela Carter's excessive brillianceNights at the Circus is rich with ingenious verbal invention, extravagant plot devices and eye-popping description. Perhaps a little too rich?
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The first book interviewThe first book interviewAlice Broadway: 'I guess it's inevitable that I became a bit death-obsessed'Ink’s heroine loses faith in a culture where people’s histories are etched on their skin – reflecting its author’s own disaffection from evangelical Christianity
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Book of the dayBook of the dayThe Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne review – sin and torment in Catholic IrelandA picaresque odyssey tracks changing attitudes towards sexual freedoms over the last 70 years and rages against the church
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The Butcher, the Baker, the Candlestick Maker: The Story of Britain Through Its CensusRoger Hutchinson’s breezily anecdotal book reveals the history and controversy behind the UK census
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Now We Are 40 by Tiffanie Darke – a generation lost to hedonism and irony?A journalist’s memoir that is also an argument about politics, sex and how society has gone wrong fails to convince
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Theresa May by Rosa Prince – the anti-Cameron, Brexit PMThere is not much that’s intriguing about the determined May, apart from her class-based reaction against her predecessor’s gilded clique
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Habermas by Stefan Müller-Doohm – from Hitler Youth to famed philosopherThe Holocaust, religion and the EU’s future are all central issues in the biography of a celebrated, combative thinker
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The Last of the Tsars by Robert Service – dispelling the mythsThe historian and biographer has written an unsentimental, surprising account of Nicholas II from his abdication in March 1917 to his execution
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Why I Am Not a Feminist: A Feminist Manifesto by Jessa Crispin – it’s time to get radicalFeminism used to mean a transformed society, a challenge to romance, a new way to live. Now, Crispin argues, it has been rebranded into banality
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This Is Memorial Device by David Keenan – explosive post-punk novelA portrait of a fictional Airdrie rock group morphs into a haunting, hallucinatory vision of the early 80s
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The Last Days of New Paris by China Miéville – a dazzling scholarly fantasyThe Nazis control Paris in 1950 and the art world’s surrealist visions have come to life in this dreamlike vision of an alternative history
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History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund – God and groomingA teenager struggles to come of age in a world of religious zealots and predatory teachers in this stark debut
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Hame by Annalena McAfee – laughs between the linesA Hebridean poet’s secret past is unearthed in this intricate satire on Scottish nationalism
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Jackself by Jacob Polley – sinister and mysteriousPolley’s haunting verse narrative blends nursery rhymes, riddles and cautionary tales with a dash of Coleridge
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Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman – a rich retellingThe fantasy polymath reimagines Asgard, complete with giant cats, collapsible ships and gossipy squirrels
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We Come Apart – a bittersweet teenage romance in verseA shoplifter falls for a Romanian immigrant in a beautiful collaboration from Sarah Crossan and Brian Conaghan
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Dick Bruna, 1927-2017Creator of Miffy, the little rabbit who became a star of children’s literature
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His Dark Materials is two decades old, but its lessons are made for todayThe Book of Dust will soon expand Philip Pullman’s landmark fantasy trilogy, but the first books can still teach us a lot about how we live now
people
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How James Salter set the standard for erotic writingFollowing a young couple in 1960s France, A Sport and a Pastime asks how we make sense of romance and tells the truth about sexual love
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Prison made me believe in literature moreThe Egyptian novelist, who was jailed last year for ‘violating public morality’ with his novel The Use of Life, looks back at an experience he hopes is now over
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Your questions answered on Terry Pratchett, Norse gods, and his marriageThe author of Sandman, Coraline and other cult hits joined us to answer your questions, on everything from Donald Trump to American Gods
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Your questions answered on Trump, climate change and VRThe pop-science writer behind Everything Bad is Good for You and Wonderland came in to answer your questions, on everything from innovation in science and technology, to his thoughts on the Trump administration
A selection of our favourite literary content from around the world
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The Little Library CaféThe Little Library CaféFood in books: breakfast rolls from The School at the ChaletKate Young seeks some escapist fiction and bakes a breakfast enjoyed by the children in the Austrian boarding school in Brent-Dyer’s novel
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Interview with a Bookstore by Literary HubInterview with a Bookstore by Literary HubInterview with a Bookstore: Blue Willow Bookshop in HoustonCelebrating 20 years since owner Valerie took over, Blue Willow Bookshop is equally split between adults and children’s books, and staffed with knowledgable booksellers who can do anything - including fixing vacuum cleaners
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pictures, video & audio
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Michael Chabon on The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and ClayThe Pulitzer prize-winning novelist looks back on a modern classic at a Guardian book club event
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Sebastian Barry on his Costa-winning novel Days Without EndIn the week Sebastian Barry picked up his second Costa book of the year award, he joins us in the studio to read from and discuss Days Without End
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Illustrating Jane Austen's Mansfield ParkHere are the 23 competition finalists in the running to illustrate The Folio Society’s new edition of the classic story of Fanny Price
you may have missed
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SS-GB and the what-if novels that alter historyAs Nazis occupy our TV screens in the adaptation of Len Deighton’s novel, DJ Taylor explores the alternative world of counter-factual novels
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We must take back our stories and reverse the gazeWriters of African heritage must resist the attempts of others to define us and our history
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Terry Pratchett docudrama is a fittingly imaginative tribute to Discworld's geniusBack in Black’s inventive life story eschews the usual talking heads to focus on the author’s devoted fans – of whom I am one
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For my family, a book was a kind of assaultThe French literary sensation and debut author of The End of Eddy on growing up without books
Sara Baume I always wanted to be an art monster