books
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Forget Dickensian happy endings, the real Christmas classics tell stories of fraught family gatherings, orgies of consumption and festivities for one
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With the Strictly Come Dancing final upon us, we ask how literature’s great dancers would fare in a dance off?
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From Brideshead Revisited to James Bond, alcohol plays a key role in fiction. Henry Jeffreys distils the best sozzled scenes – and the worst hangovers
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My writing day There is nothing so dangerous to good writing as having too much time
Maggie O'Farrell'You need the filtration system of being kept from your work.’ -
The story of how Yorkshire’s postwar glory in rugby league, cricket and football was destroyed by neoliberalism
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Workers from Unite and NUJ fear move heralds industrial strife at company that publishes one in four books sold globally
news
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Raid that led to her arrest could have been part of investigation into illegal labor or falsified ration coupons
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Writers from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to Jeanette Winterson shared their picks over the weekend – but it’s a very good time to be enthusing, so please share yours
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These supposedly sober reference works are often distinctly idiosyncratic. Here are some worth looking up
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best books of 2016
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Fiction Ali Smith, Paul Beatty, Don DeLillo and more...
Justine JordanWe thumb through a year that saw a US author win the Booker, the death of a short-story master – and the first Brexit novel -
From Zadie Smith’s Swing Time to horror in the Highlands and a brief history of tomorrow ...
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Best biographies and autobiographies
Kathryn HughesCocktails with Sartre and dark memories of Gaddafi … Kathryn Hughes explores extraordinary lives -
Best paperbacks of the year
Nicholas LezardKazuo Ishiguro’s haunting The Buried Giant, Adam Mars-Jones’s hilarious memoir and Sydney Padua’s eye-opening graphic novel are some of this year’s highlights -
Best books on sport
Huw RichardsA surfer’s prizewinning memoir, an insight into women’s football and a chronicle of horse racing make Huw Richards’ selection
• Vote: What was your favourite book of the year? -
Best books on food
Felicity CloakeFrom fresh central Asian flavours to pies from the deep south, cookbooks open up new mouthwatering worlds for Felicity Cloake
• Vote: What was your favourite book of the year?
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Best music books
Richard Williams -
Best politics books
Gaby Hinsliff -
Best art books
Peter Conrad -
Best architecture books
Rowan Moore -
Best graphic novels
Rachel Cooke -
Best poetry books
Kate Kellaway -
Best books on drink
Henry Jeffreys -
Best nature books
Stephen Moss
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regulars
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100 Best Nonfiction Books of All Time100 Best Nonfiction Books of All TimeThe 100 best nonfiction books: No 46 – The Waste Land by TS Eliot (1922)TS Eliot’s long poem, written in extremis, came to embody the spirit of the years following the first world war
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Book of the dayBook of the dayMidwinter by Fiona Melrose review – grief, pride and familial loveFather and son farmers in Suffolk recall their past life in Zambia – and the events that now haunt them – in this vivid debut
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The first book interviewThe first book interviewSaleem Haddad: 'I put everything into this novel and it was a relief'Guapa portrays a gay man struggling with shame amid the wreckage of a failed uprising in an unnamed Arab country. The author explains how this ‘fluent and passionate’ debut is and isn’t his own story
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Top 10sTop 10sTop 10 dictionariesFrom Samuel Johnson to the Urban Dictionary, these supposedly sober reference works are often distinctly idiosyncratic. Here are some worth looking up
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The resilience of Native people in the US, Canada and Greenland – as seen at Standing Rock – is a story that has been waiting to be told
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If we ask the right questions and answer them honestly, won’t the whole edifice of patriarchy come tumbling down?
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A controversial thinker targets the nostalgia behind our political moment – from Trump to Brexit, Putin to militant Islam
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The novelist’s smart essays on science and the arts bridge the gap between the disciplines, inviting us to look at the world anew
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History How to Survive a Plague by David France
Mark HonigsbaumAn eyewitness of the remarkable 1980s campaign to help Aids sufferers reports straight from the heart of the action -
Michael Lewis tells the compelling story of Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, whose behaviourist theories led to his own bestseller Moneyball
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Short stories Severance/Intercourse by Robert Olen Butler – experiments in death and sex
Matthew AdamsButler’s attempts to capture the thoughts of the recently decapitated, and of couples having sex, are formally adventurous but leave you wanting a story -
Poetry Tidings: A Christmas Journey by Ruth Padel
Kate KellawayThis unsentimental poem about a homeless man at Christmas evokes the true festive spirit -
Fiction Cousins by Salley Vickers
Stephanie MerrittIn this scalpel-sharp novel, a dramatic accident leads to three women unearthing a dark family secret
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Love is tackled in all its manifestations, Petina Gappah lays down the law in Harare and the gifted Stuart Dybek makes his UK debut
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A quiet storm of a novel about the gulf between the openness of youth and the dangerous restraint of middle age
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Fiction A Horse Walks into a Bar by David Grossman – serious portrait of a shocking standup
Ian SansomA writer of gravitas embraces the world of comedy with this parable-like tale of a repellent Israeli comedian -
The Dry by Jane Harper; The Hermit by Thomas Rydahl; The Chemist by Stephenie Meyer; The Watcher by Ross Armstrong; The Beautiful Dead by Belinda Bauer
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From tales of migration and crime to wolves, bugs and the difficulty of sharing – Julia Eccleshare’s picks of the year
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Children's book roundup The best new picture books and novels
Imogen Russell WilliamsMonochrome magic with Mary Poppins, a swooning YA romance and Winnie-the-Pooh returns -
Something to chirp about! Picture books for children
Kate KellawayA classic song leaps from the page while a baby bunny throws a monster tantrum… the pick of the titles for younger readers
people
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The American author on feminism, the arts-science divide and misogyny in the presidential election
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Author best known for his 1959 novel To Sir, With Love, based on his experiences as a black teacher in a London school, which was turned into a successful film
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The author of The Three-Body Problem explains how science fiction emerged from the Cultural Revolution’s shadow, with the potential to speak across cultures
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Born 100 years ago, Shirley Jackson wrote stories filled with nameless dread that still speak to women’s anger
A selection of our favourite literary content from around the world
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The Little Library CaféThe Little Library CaféFood in books: Christmas pavlova from Ballet Shoes by Noel StreatfeildDreaming of a hot, Australian Christmas, Kate Young puts together a pomegranate pavlova: a dessert as festive as a traditional English pudding
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Interview with a Bookstore by Literary HubInterview with a Bookstore by Literary HubInterview with a Bookstore: Book Culture in New YorkSpread over three stores, Book Culture has an impressive selection of academic titles and literary fiction and customers so loyal they punch robbers in the face
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pictures, video & audio
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The challenges of ageing and the dark side of fairy stories examined in a novel, The Dark Flood Rises, and the cabaret Brides of Bluebeard
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The comics legend tells the standup comic why his latest project is a small-town novel set in the Midlands, running to 1,280 pages and titled Jerusalem
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Lewis Carroll’s classic is renowned for John Tenniel’s illustrations. But few know about the engravers who made it all happen. Take a look at their work
you may have missed
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The women’s rights activist plans to keep fighting against injustice beyond age 82 and uplift the ‘new burst of feminist energy’ ready to take on Trump’s presidency
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A Christmas Carol The nightmare before Christmas
Colm TóibínForget seasonal cheer, Dickens’s A Christmas Carol takes greater pleasure in Scrooge’s ghostly visions than in his redemption -
The political economist on Trump’s election, why we should be happy about Brexit and the crises facing western democracy
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The author on her unexpected new collection, the turmoil in British politics and her ‘tin ear’ for the class system
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Beatrix Potter and the beginnings of my need to be a writer