The singer on how being in Pulp prepared him for judging a literary prize, reading 163 books while on tour, and feeling like the odd one out on the panel• M John Harrison becomes the first science fiction author to win the...
Read MoreThe unlikely friendship between French and English composers Maurice Ravel and Ralph Vaughan Williams has inspired a tender and generous novelIn 1907, composer Ralph Vaughan Williams confided to the critic Edwin Evans that he...
Read MoreSurreal, mysterious and with an outlandish origin story, Jan Potocki’s The Manuscript Found in Saragossa has amassed a cult following that includes Salman Rushdie and Jerry Garcia. But it’s the book’s global humanism makes it...
Read MoreShortlisted for the Booker and Baillie Gifford prizes respectively, the novelist and biographer talk about working and living together – and giving a voice to Black queer historyThe literary power couple is a historically...
Read MoreWonderful, exuberant stories spill out in these honest tales of lives genuinely transformed by literature – while Queen Camilla has an off-with-their-heads momentYou have to love a documentary in which Queen Camilla reveals that...
Read MoreI found being a Booker judge hugely rewarding. All the works on our shortlist will change how you see the world• This year’s Booker prize shortlistAs a Booker judge, I think I have worked harder than I have ever done before....
Read MoreThe much-discussed Life of M is the latest in a lineage of celebrity satire that spans from Virginia Woolf to The Devil Wears PradaIn Rachel Cusk’s new novel, Life of M, the famous actor protagonist participates in an event at a...
Read MoreThree decades after he channelled his heroin addiction into the cult classic Trainspotting, the Scottish author has discovered the joys of yoga, breathwork and standing desks. But is he quite as ‘Zen’ as he claims?By rights,...
Read MoreFrom a transporting historical saga to a tale of small-town betrayal, the authors of our favourite page-turners reveal the books they take on holiday – introduced by Jenny ColganIt is important to follow a balanced diet on...
Read MoreHer breakup memoir and Vogue column made her the voice of modern dating. As her debut is published, she talks about single life, oversharing and why she still believes she’ll find loveThere is a scene in Annie Lord’s novel...
Read MoreFrom novels by James Baldwin and Han Kang to a guide to quantum physics – a former Booker prize judge recommends immersive one-sitting wondersA one-sitting read is typically the domain of the short story – a form that largely...
Read MoreFrom frontline reporting to a trailblazing comic novel and a prophetic dystopia, which of Eric Blair’s books is the best?Imagination was not George Orwell’s forte. In each novel the protagonist is to some extent an Orwell...
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