books
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Let’s face it, Shakespeare’s plots are terribleThe Taming of the Shrew is an outlandish story. So I filled in a few details and toned down the exaggerations for Vinegar Girl, my novel for the Shakespeare Project -
What is so special about things that never happened?As The Selfish Gene turns 40, the author reflects on what he has learned about writing and science
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Cuts-hit Poetry Book Society to closeOrganisation founded by TS Eliot to ‘propagate the art of poetry’ will hand over activities after losing struggle to survive following axing of ACE funding -
Looking down on Britain – maps of the UK across timeFrom Peter Pan’s movements in Kensington back to images of imperial vanity and plans of Saxon kingdoms, maps provide fascinating routes through British history. Many are on show at the London Map Fair, or you can consult some here
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What really happened during Napoleon's exileIn his latest novel, Keneally tells the extraordinary story of the emperor’s last years on the remote island of St Helena. Here he reveals how artefacts from the emperor’s home, now on display, inspired him to write the book
news
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Aleksandar Hemon defends Donald Trump's right to electoral ‘job interview’Bosnian emigré writes that while he deplores Trump, the authors who have opposed his presidential candidacy forget he is ‘abiding by the rules of democratic election’
Hay festival 2016
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Exam board rules on punctuation are wrong, wrong, and wrongLinguistics expert David Crystal tells Hay festival that school advisers are ‘not aware of complexity of decisions they are asking kids to make’
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WI not just about jam and Jerusalem, author tells Hay festivalMaggie Andrews says members debated how to outwit Nazis and equal rights and were the acceptable face of feminism
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Yanis Varoufakis tells Hay festival he admired Margaret ThatcherFormer Greek finance minister says while he protested against Thatcher he enjoyed how she ‘wiped the floor’ with opposition
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CIA ex-boss: secretive spooks tolerated in UK more than in USMichael Hayden talks at Hay festival about Edward Snowden and how Facebook, not government, is new privacy battleground
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Is it time to reassess the 'beach read'?Derided and maligned as cheap and cheerful summer flings, in truth, the best summer reads have always been much more than a passing holiday romance
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Making a killing from self-publishingHer Last Tomorrow, Adam Croft’s latest DIY thriller, lifted his bedroom business into the sales stratosphere. He talks about paying off his mortgage in weeks and why he’s fine with publishers being ‘sniffy’
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regulars
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Top 10sTop 10sTop 10 books to make you a better personDon’t be put off! Works by WG Sebald, Roberto Bolaño and Wallace Shawn and others can help us to see ourselves more clearly and understand life better
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Reading groupReading groupHelp choose a translated book for June's Reading groupTranslated fiction is doing better than ever in the UK, so now seems like a fine time to zero in on a good example. But which?
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100 Best Nonfiction Books of All Time100 Best Nonfiction Books of All TimeIt’s a frighteningly giant universe to survey, but picking 100 great books that fall under this baggy rubric promises real insightsThe best nonfiction books add up to a biography of our culture
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PodcastPodcastMaggie Nelson and Chris Kraus on confessional writing – books podcastMaggie Nelson explains the nuances of tackling gender and sexuality in her genre-bending memoir The Argonauts, while Chris Kraus talks about her 1997 feminist text I Love Dick enjoying a second life in 2016
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Negroland by Margo Jefferson – life in the black upper classA captivating memoir on the distinction between white and black privilege and how the black power movement brought on a crisis for the author
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Thicker Than Water by Cal Flyn – my ancestor the murdererA descendant of Angus McMillan, who massacred Indigenous Australians, travels to Gippsland to confront difficult truths
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And the Sun Shines Now by Adrian Tempany – a Hillsborough survivor on the modern gameA brave and deeply personal history of how the disaster has shaped football
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The Man with the Golden Typewriter – Ian Fleming’s James Bond lettersFleming’s nephew reveals a jokey side to the author in an entertaining book that you don’t have to be a Bond nut to enjoy
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My Old Man: Tales of Our Fathers edited by Ted KesslerFamous figures open up about their fathers in this poignant blog turned anthology
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Free Speech: Ten Principles for a Connected World by Timothy Garton AshThis urgent, encyclopedic study explores what freedom of speech means in an age of diversity
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A touching, thought-provoking debutA young vulnerable boy is taken into care after his mother is no longer able to cope
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Funny, brutal and touchingStibbe’s young heroine Lizzie Vogel comes of age, contending with ‘comfort rounds’ and commodes in an elderly care home
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The Lubetkin Legacy by Marina Lewycka – where are the ordinary people?An angry stand against social injustice resorts to the staples of 70s TV comedy
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Our Young Man by Edmund White – sparkling and steamy tale of a male modelA beautiful young man ascends the dizzy heights of the fashion world in White’s playful and profound 11th novel
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Golden Hill by Francis Spufford – an frolicsome first novelA picaresque tale of an ingenu’s travails in mid-18th century Manhattan pays loving tribute to the literature of that era
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The Bones of Grace by Tahmima AnamThis teasing love story from one of Granta’s best young novelists has some superlative writing but struggles to pull its narrative threads together
people
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Kathleen Alcott's journey from east to west coast into printAbandoning a sociable San Francisco, the young writer moved to New York, where, she explains, she discovered loneliness and literary success. Marta Bausells joins her on a tour of this new world
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BoJack cartoonist gets personal in Hot Dog Taste TestThe illustrator’s new book of comics, like BoJack Horseman, balances the sombre and the playful, mixing food experiments with family trips to Buenos Aires
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JK Rowling's alter ego Robert Galbraith shortlisted for crime novel awardGalbraith’s Career of Evil is one of six titles selected by Theakston for their Old Peculier crime novel of the year
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The Racehorse Who Wouldn't Gallop by Clare BaldingCan Charlie turn her chaotic family into a top training team? Can her horse overcome his nerves? Find out in the debut children’s book from Clare Balding – read the first chapter and hear Clare read it here
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CJ Flood: teen girls have a right to roam tooWomen’s freedoms are frequently curbed by well-intentioned parents and society. Writing a book encouraging women to go out and explore their surroundings alone at night, novelist CJ Flood grappled with the risks while urging teenagers to stay unafraid and inquisitive
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fictional shops in children's booksShops are familiar places to us all and yet in stories they are full of mystique and intrigue. Jennifer Bell shares her favourite fictional boutiques, salons and emporiums, from Ollivanders and Beatrix Potter to the Strand Bookshop in New York
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CHERUB bloopersAs the 17th and final book in his CHERUB series is published, Robert Muchamore reveals his out-takes reel
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Top writing tipsFrom that killer first line to dealing with writer’s block, author Chris D’Lacey shares his top writing tips
A selection of our favourite literary content from around the world
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The Little Library CaféThe Little Library CaféFood in books: raspberry and coconut cakes in Sarah Perry's The Essex SerpentKate Young discovers Sarah Perry’s new novel, full of realistic portraits of London, fantastic characters and a great love of food
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Interview with a Bookstore by Literary HubInterview with a Bookstore by Literary HubInterview with a Bookstore: Papercuts JP, the smallest bookstore in BostonWith only three employees, the creators of the tiny Boston icon talk about growing a community, cosmic dreams and what they’d do with more space
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pictures, video & audio
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Nazi architecture, then and nowSeventy years after the fall of Nazi Germany, a surprising number of its buildings and public spaces remain. A new book examines these unsettling survivals. Here are some of them
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The power and glory of tidesThe ebb and flow of oceans around the world reveal the planet’s daily dance in the sloshing of billions of tonnes of water. Hugh Aldersey-Williams examines the collision of immovable object and irresistible force at the boundary between land and sea
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Maggie Nelson and Chris Kraus on confessional writingMaggie Nelson explains the nuances of tackling gender and sexuality in her genre-bending memoir The Argonauts, while Chris Kraus talks about her 1997 feminist text I Love Dick enjoying a second life in 2016
you may have missed
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Mike Mignola moves on to watercoloursAs the final comic is published, the graphic artist discusses how he started and why he is embracing ‘blur and mush’
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Genes are personal. They ask the question: why are we like this?The Pulitzer-winning cancer specialist is back with a study of genes that is also a memoir of his family and its history of mental illness
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It’s taken me this long to be on reasonable terms with my own psycheAs his first novel – the tale of a young charmer in 18th-century New York – comes out, Francis Spufford says he wishes he’d started writing fiction years ago
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Truth, insomnia and waiting for inspiration in Norwich John LewisThe author describes her lettuce-fuelled writing regime, and recuperating with a latte and a cheese scone
The Psalm Killer remains at its black, beating heart a piece of classic noir